CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said his office is drafting a law to criminalize insulting the uprisings that toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and his Islamist successor Mohammed Morsi last year.

Mohamed Nabil / Al-Watan / AFP/Getty ImagesEgypt's former president Hosni Mubarak waves to his supporters from the balcony of his room at the Maadi military hospital in Cairo on Nov. 29.

The move intends to ease concerns on both sides of a widening rift over whether the two popular movements expressed the genuine will of Egyptians. The dispute was further stoked by a judge’s dismissal last weekend of a murder case against Mubarak over the killing of protesters.

Just what would constitute an insult however was unclear, as was the timeframe for the legislation’s implementation. Such a law, however, would infringe on the freedom of expression guaranteed by the nation’s new constitution. It follows an intense, yearlong media campaign to denigrate the 2011 uprising and paint those behind it as foreign agents.

Many of those who participated in the 2011 uprising also supported massive street demonstrations in June 2013 accusing Morsi of monopolizing power and demanding his resignation, but were later targeted by a crackdown that saw many of their leaders jailed.

News of the draft law broke late Tuesday when the presidential palace released comments by el-Sissi to a group of young media workers. El-Sissi, who led the military ouster of Morsi in July 2013, wields legislative authority since Egypt’s last elected parliament was dissolved by a 2012 court ruling. Elections for a new legislature are due next year.

Also on Tuesday, an Egyptian criminal court sentenced 188 people to death — all of whom are accused of involvement in a “massacre” of eleven policemen last August in the town of Kerdasa, west of Cairo, in one of the country’s grisliest assaults on security forces.

The attack happened on the same day that security forces brutally cleared two protest camps of supporting ousted President Mohammed Morsi’s, killing hundreds in the process.

The Tuesday decision requires the opinion of Egypt’s top religious authority, after which the court will issue a final verdict.

Egypt has been criticized for recent mass death sentences, notably when a judge sentenced to death more than 1,200 people in two mass trials. The number of death sentences was later reduced to some 200.

Another law being drafted, according to el-Sissi, would remove the statute of limitations on graft crimes.

That appeared to be in response to a weekend court ruling acquitting Mubarak, his two sons and a businessman friend of corruption charges because the alleged crime took place over 10 years ago. The prosecution alleged that the businessman, Hussein Salem, bribed the Mubaraks by selling them vastly discounted villas in a Red Sea resort. Salem, a fugitive living in Spain, was tried in absentia.

CAIRO, Egypt — A court in Egypt on Monday sentenced to death 529 supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on charges of murdering a policeman and attacking police, convicting them after only two sessions in one of the largest mass trials in the country in decades.

The verdicts are subject to appeal and would likely be overturned, rights lawyers said. But they said the swiftness and harshness of the rulings on such a large scale underlined the extent to which Egypt’s courts have been politicized and due process has been ignored amid a sweeping crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood supporters since the military removed the president last summer.

The first of the trial’s two sessions in a court in the city of Minya, south of Cairo, saw furious arguments as the judge angrily rejected requests by defence lawyers for more time to let them review the trial documents for the hundreds of defendants. In Monday’s session when the verdicts and sentences were read, security forces barred defence lawyers from attending, one of the lawyers, Yasser Zidan, told The Associated Press.

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“This is way over the top and unacceptable,” said attorney Mohammed Zarie, who heads a rights centre in Cairo. “It turns the judiciary in Egypt from a tool for achieving justice to an instrument for taking revenge.”

“This verdict could be a precedent both in the history of Egyptian courts and perhaps, tribunals elsewhere in the world,” he added.

All but around 150 of the defendants in the case were tried in absentia by the court in the city of Minya, south of Cairo. The judges acquitted 16 defendants.

Egypt has seen a string of mass trials of Morsi supporters in recent weeks, usually over charges of violence in connection to Islamist protests against Morsi’s removal and the crackdown.

AFP / STR / Getty ImagesA relative of a supporter of Egyptian ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi is supported as he faints outside the courthouse on March 24, 2014

The 545 defendants in the case were charged with murder, attempted murder and stealing government weapons in connection with an attack on a police station in August in the town of Matay in Minya province. One police officer was killed in the attack. The violence was part of rioting around the country sparked when security forces stormed two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo, killing hundreds of people on Aug. 14.

During the first session on Saturday, defence lawyer Khaled el-Koumi said that he and other lawyers asked the presiding judge, Said Youssef, to postpone the case to give them time to review the hundreds of documents in the case, but the request was declined.

When another lawyer made a request, the judge interrupted and refused to recognize it. When the lawyers protested, Youssef shouted that they would not dictate what he should do and ordered court security to step in between him and the lawyers.

AFP / STR / Getty ImagesRelatives reacting outside the courthouse

A security official in the courtroom said the defendants and the lawyers disrupted the proceedings by chanting against the judge: “God is our only refuge!” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

“We didn’t have the chance to say a word, to look at more than 3,000 pages of investigation and to see what evidence they are talking about,” el-Koumi, who was representing 10 of the defendants, told The Associated Press.

A senior Brotherhood figure, Ibrahim Moneir, denounced the verdicts, warning that abuses of justice will fuel a backlash against the military-backed government that replaced Morsi.

“Now the coup is hanging itself by these void measures,” he said, speaking to the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera Mubashir Misr TV station.

He said he believed the verdicts were timed to send a message to an Arab League summit that begins Tuesday in Kuwait, where Egypt is pressing other Arab governments to ban the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group.

On Tuesday, another mass trial against Morsi’s supporters opens in a Minya court with 683 suspects facing similar charges. The defendants in that case include Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, who also faces multiple other trials, and senior members of the group from Minya province.

Egypt’s military toppled Morsi in July after four days of massive demonstrations by his opponents demanding he step down for abusing power during his year in office. Since then, Morsi’s Brotherhood and other Islamist supporters have staged near-daily demonstrations that usually descend into violent street confrontations with security forces.

The military-backed government has arrested some 16,000 people in the ensuing crackdown, including most of the Brotherhood leadership.

At the same time, militant bombings, suicide attacks and other assaults — mostly by an al-Qaida-inspired group — have increased, targeting police and military forces in retaliation for the crackdown. The authorities have blamed the Brotherhood for the violence, branding it a terrorist organization and confiscating its assets. The group has denied any links to the attacks and has denounced the violence.

Imad El-Anis, an expert in Middle Eastern politics at Nottingham Trent University, said Monday’s verdicts were “far from meeting minimum international standards for judicial processes of this kind.”

But he said Egyptian authorities are unlikely to heed any international criticism of the verdicts “and are likely to push on with further rapid mass trials.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/03/24/egypt-sentences-529-mohammed-morsi-supporters-to-death-on-charges-of-attacking-police/feed/1stdEgyptian relatives of supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi cry sitting outside the courthouse on March 24, 2014 in the southern province of Minya, after the court ordered the execution of 529 Morsi supporters after only two hearings. The unprecedented verdict, amid an extensive crackdown on Morsi supporters, is likely to be overturned on appeal, legal experts saidAFP / STR / Getty ImagesAFP / STR / Getty Images‘Who are you? Tell me!': Enraged Mohammed Morsi yells in a soundproof glass cage at start of trial in Cairohttp://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/28/who-are-you-tell-me-enraged-mohammed-morsi-yells-in-a-soundproof-glass-cage-at-start-of-trial-in-cairo/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/28/who-are-you-tell-me-enraged-mohammed-morsi-yells-in-a-soundproof-glass-cage-at-start-of-trial-in-cairo/#commentsTue, 28 Jan 2014 18:36:37 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=419827

CAIRO — Egypt’s toppled President Mohammed Morsi stood alone in a soundproof glass-encased metal cage at the start of a new trial Tuesday wearing a white prison uniform, pacing and shouting angrily at the judge in apparent disbelief: “Who are you? Tell me!”

Morsi is on trial with 130 others, including Muslim Brotherhood leaders, and militants from the Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, over charges related to the prison breaks at the height of the 18-day 2011 uprising against his predecessor Hosni Mubarak. After five hours, the trial was adjourned to Feb. 22.

The trial coincided with the third anniversary of one of the most violent days of that revolution that plunged the country into prolonged turmoil, and that eventually led to the virtual collapse of the police and their withdrawal from the streets.

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Morsi supporters clashed with police Tuesday in central Cairo. In two separate attacks, gunmen also killed an aide to the country’s interior minister in a drive-by shooting outside Cairo and a policeman guarding a church in a southern section of the capital.

Security forces also deployed heavily and erected checkpoints in the city as they braced for more violence with protests by Morsi supporters scheduled for later in the afternoon.

The former Islamist president, ousted in a popularly backed July 3 coup, also declared to the judges that he remains Egypt’s legitimate leader during an unaired portion of the hearing, a state television reporter inside the courtroom said. In aired edited footage, defendants chanted that their trial was “invalid.” Earlier, the defendants turned their back to the court to protest their prosecution, the state television journalist said.

In a half hour of recorded footage aired on state television, Morsi protested being in a cage for his trial on charges related to prison breaks in 2011. Raising his hands in the air and angrily questioning why he was in the court, Morsi yelled in apparent disbelief: “Do you know where I am?”

MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/Getty ImagesEgyptians gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square during a rally marking the anniversary of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising on January 25, 2014.

Morsi paced in a metal cell separated from other defendants. Earlier, a promised live feed was cut, something a senior state television official told local media that security forces demanded.

Authorities have said the jailbreaks were part of an organized effort to destabilize the country. Rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the chaotic events, saying they hold the police responsible for the pandemonium. A Brotherhood lawyer has said the trial appears aimed at “denigrating” Morsi and the Brotherhood.

It was the second time Morsi has appeared in court since the coup. At his first appearance in November, Morsi wore a trim, dark suit and appeared far less agitated, though he interrupted the judge and gave long speeches, declaring forcefully that he was “the president of the republic.” At the time, he had emerged from a four months detention in an undisclosed location, appearing in public for the first time since his ouster.

Authorities apparently resorted to the glass-encased cage to muffle the defendants’ outbursts, which have disrupted the previous hearing. The judge controls the microphone to the cage.

Morsi already faces three other trials on various charges, some of them carrying the death penalty. The charges against Morsi in this case carry a life sentence.

Prosecutors in the case demanded the maximum penalty for the defendants.

“These acts were committed with the terrorist aim of terrifying the public and spreading chaos,” a prosecutor said, addressing the court. He said Morsi and other leading Brotherhood members have plotted with foreign groups to “undermine the Egyptian state and its institutions.”

Tuesday’s case is rooted in the 2011 escape of more than 20,000 inmates from Egyptian prisons – including Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood members – during the early days of the 18-day uprising against Mubarak. Morsi and the other Brotherhood leaders escaped two days after they were detained three years ago as Mubarak’s security forces tried to undercut the planned protests.

At the time, authorities also cut off Internet access and mobile phone networks, crippling communication among the protesters and with the outside world.

In court Tuesday, 19 other defendants appeared with Morsi. Another 111 defendants, including members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, are being tried in absentia.

The hearing was being held at a police academy complex in eastern Cairo, where a heavy security presence stood guard Tuesday.

Protests by Morsi supporters were scheduled to mark the third anniversary of the so-called “Friday of Rage,” in which protesters and police clashed for hours in 2011 before police withdrew from the streets and the military deployed.

Earlier Tuesday, police forces lobbed tear gas and clashed with Morsi supporters burning tires on a major street in central Cairo, kilometers (miles) from the courtroom.

The Interior Ministry said two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a senior police officer as he left his home in the Haram district of Giza, a neighborhood near the Pyramids. Maj. Gen. Mohammed el-Said was an aide to the interior minister and head of the technical office in ministry, which is in charge of police.

Later in the afternoon, gunmen in a speeding car shot and killed a policeman and wounded another guarding a church in the Oct. 6 district in southern Cairo, a security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. There were no worshippers at the time in the church.

Also Tuesday, MENA reported that gunmen blew up a natural gas pipeline Monday night in the volatile Sinai Peninsula south of el-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai governorate. It said firefighters rushed to the scene to extinguish a fire there.

Gas pipelines have come under attacks several times since Mubarak’s downfall, which led to a fracturing of Egypt’s security agencies. Suicide bombings also have spiked and spilled into the capital, Cairo, and other cities. An al-Qaida-inspired group called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Champions of Jerusalem, has claimed responsibility for most of those attacks.

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s army chief, Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who led last summer’s coup ousting the Islamist president, was promoted Monday to the military’s top rank, field marshal, an honour that could be a prelude to his stepping down to run for president in elections due by the end of April.

The promotion, announced by Egypt’s interim president, came after large crowds held rallies over the weekend calling for el-Sissi to run. Private newspapers close to the military ran front-page headlines on Monday saying he would announce his candidacy soon.

El-Sissi, who held the rank of general before Monday’s promotion, has yet to announce his intentions. Supporters have touted him as the nation’s saviour after he removed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on July 3 following days of massive protests by millions of Egyptians demanding Morsi step down. Since then, security forces have waged a fierce crackdown on Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, arrested thousands and killing hundreds, even as the group continues protests demanding Morsi’s reinstatement.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces — the military’s top body of generals, headed by el-Sissi — was meeting Monday, military spokesman Gen. Ahmed Mohammed Ali told The Associated Press. He would not give details and said he could not comment whether the promotion is related to the possibility of el-Sissi running.

The promotion gives el-Sissi the same rank held by his predecessor, Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, who was army chief and defence minister for years under former President Hosni Mubarak and who then stepped in as military ruler for nearly 17 months after Mubarak’s ouster in the 2011 uprising. After Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was inaugurated in 2012, he removed Tantawi and installed el-Sissi.

Retired Gen. Hossam Sweilam, an analyst who remains close to the military, said he believes the promotion was meant as a final honour before el-Sissi runs.

“This is a belated move by the state to honour the man who removed the Muslim Brotherhood from power,” he told The Associated Press. “This is to pave the way for him to leave the military while holding the highest title and contest elections.”

By law, a current member of the military cannot run for the presidency. A day earlier, interim President Adly Mansour, announced that presidential elections would be held first, followed by parliamentary elections, switching the order first laid out in a transition plan put forward by the military after Morsi’s ouster.

The presidential election is now expected before the end of April, while a parliamentary vote should come before the end of July.

The presidential elections comes against backdrop of an Islamic militant insurgency that has spread since Morsi’s ouster, with a rise in attacks that initially intensified in the Sinai Peninsula but have since increasingly taken place in the capital, Cairo, and other cities, mainly targeting police and the military. The government branded the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, accusing it of orchestrating the violence. The group denies the charge, saying it is aimed at justifying the crackdown.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/27/egypts-army-chief-promoted-to-militarys-top-rank-amid-predictions-of-presidential-run/feed/6stdFILE - In this Wednesday, April 24, 2013 file photo, Egyptian Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi salutes during an arrival ceremony for U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at the Ministry of Defense in Cairo. Egypt’s state TV said Monday, Jan. 27, 2014 that the country’s Interim President issued a presidential decision, promoting the powerful army chief who led the July coup removed Islamist president from power, to the top military rank of marshal.Egyptians vote 98.1% in favour of new constitution, though only about 39% votedhttp://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/18/egyptians-vote-98-1-in-favour-of-new-constitution-though-only-about-39-voted/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/18/egyptians-vote-98-1-in-favour-of-new-constitution-though-only-about-39-voted/#commentsSat, 18 Jan 2014 16:42:10 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=415833

CAIRO — Egypt’s election committee says 98.1% of voters have approved a new, military-backed constitution in the first vote since a coup toppled the country’s president.

Egypt’s High Election Commission said Saturday that 38.6% of the country’s more than 53 million eligible voters took part in the two-day poll. That’s 20.5 million voters casting ballots.

This is the first vote since the military removed Egypt’s first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, following massive protests in July. Officials view the vote as key in legitimizing the country’s military-backed interim government and its plan for parliamentary and presidential elections.

But Morsi’s supporters and his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group boycotted the vote and have alleged the results were forged. The Brotherhood has vowed to keep up their near-daily protests.

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Activists and monitoring groups have raised serious concerns over the atmosphere in which voting took place, with U.S.-based Democracy International saying that “arrests and detention of dissenting voices” took place ahead of the poll.

“A democratic transition should be characterized by an expansion of freedoms, but Egyptians have seen substantial restrictions on the exercise of their democratic rights,” said Eric Bjornlund, Democracy International’s president and head of the observation mission in Egypt.

Democracy International, which had some 80 observers in Egypt, said on voting days it noted that a heavy security deployment and the layout of some of the polling stations “could have jeopardized voters’ ability to cast a ballot in secret.” It also there was campaigning too close to the polling stations and lack of non-partisan domestic observers.

“There is no evidence that such problems substantially affected the outcome of this referendum, but they could affect the integrity or the credibility of more closely contested electoral processes in the future,” the group said in a statement Friday.

In the lead up to the vote, police arrested those campaigning for a “no” vote on the referendum, leaving little room for arguing against the document.

On Friday, supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi took to the streets to denounce the draft charter. Morsi was deposed in a popularly backed military coup July 3 and the previous constitution was drafted under his government.

Some protests turned violent. Four people were killed in the ensuing clashes, Egypt’s Health Ministry said Saturday. It said 15 people were injured nationwide.

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s security authorities launched a sweep of arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members on Thursday and warned that holding a leadership post in the group could now be grounds for the death penalty after it was officially declared a terrorist organization, stepping up the government’s confrontation with its top political nemesis.

The announcement came as a bomb exploded in a busy intersection in Cairo Thursday morning, hitting a bus and wounding five people. Though small, the blast raised fears that a campaign of violence by Islamic militants that for months has targeted police and the military could turn to civilians in retaliation for the stepped up crackdown.

The terrorist labeling of the Brotherhood — an unprecedented step even during past decades when the group was banned — takes to a new level the government’s moves to crush the group, which rode on elections to dominate Egypt’s politics the past three years until the military removed Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July after massive protests against him.

The Brotherhood vowed to “qualitatively” escalate its protests against the new military-backed interim government, whose authority it rejects. The group has struggled to bring numbers into the streets in past months under a crackdown that has already killed hundreds of its members and put thousands more in prison, including Morsi and other top leaders — and there was little sign of any protests on Thursday.

The moves — all playing out before the backdrop of increasing violence by al-Qaida-inspired militants —raise the potential for greater turmoil as the country nears a key Jan. 14-15 referendum on a revised constitution, a milestone in the post-Morsi political transition. The government is pushing for overwhelming passage of the new document, while the Brotherhood vows to stop it with protests.

Ahmed Imam, spokesman for the Strong Egypt Party founded by ex-Brotherhood member Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, warned that the terrorism label “leaves the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters only one choice, which is violence.”

Both sides are showing “a great deal of stupidity,” he said, blaming the Brotherhood for failing to firmly distance itself from militant violence and the government for closing doors to reconciliation.

Speaking to military graduates Thursday, military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the man who removed Morsi and is now Egypt’s most powerful figure, vowed the country will “stand steadfast in confronting terrorism.”

“Don’t let any of the incidents happening now affect the will of Egyptians. Never,” he said. “Anyone harms you will be wiped from the face of Earth.”

In past months, authorities have used penal code’s various legal justifications for arresting Morsi supporters, from inciting violence to blocking roads. But Wednesday’s terror designation means the Brotherhood’s hundreds of thousands of members can be arrested for simple membership under a tough, years-old anti-terrorism law that outlines death penalties or long prison sentences for some crimes. The government says it will leave leeway for those who renounce the group’s ideology and membership, but didn’t explain how since members don’t carry IDs to prove they belong.

The government said it urged other Arab governments to take similar steps under a 1998 regional anti-terrorism treaty, to increase pressure on Brotherhood branches, especially in Gulf countries already known for longtime enmity to the group.

Police on Thursday arrested 16 Brotherhood members in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya on charges of belonging to a terrorist group, the state news agency MENA said. Another 54 were arrested on accusations they attacked police stations or incited violence.

Private TV networks also aired the number for a hotline for people to report “members of the terrorist Brotherhood” to the National Security Agency — raising the possibility of citizens turning on citizens and increasing the group’s isolation.

Interior Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif said the security forces now had an even freer hand to move against Brotherhood protests. “Things are totally different now,” he told state TV. He said police “won’t be restricted” by provisions in a recent anti-protest law that proscribed gradual steps against protests, starting with verbal warnings, water cannons and tear gas before turning to heavier methods.

Under the anti-terrorism law, those who participate in Brotherhood protests could face up to five years in prison, and “those leading this group (the Brotherhood) could be punished by the death penalty,” he said.

AP Photo/Amr NabilEgyptian activists shout anti-terrorism slogans as they hold posters showing Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser, right, with Arabic slogans read, "Egypt is entrusted to us. The army and people are one hand," during an anti-terrorism demonstration in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013. A bomb blast hit a public bus in the Egyptian capital, wounding several people, the Interior Ministry said, in an attack that raised concerns that a wave of violence blamed on Islamic militants that has targeted security forces and military for months is increasingly turning to hit civilians.

In other steps, the Brotherhood’s daily newspaper, Freedom and Justice, was suspended after security forces confiscated Thursday’s edition.

To drain the group’s resources, the government froze funds of more than 1,000 non-government organizations and charities linked to the Brotherhood and put more than 100 schools run by the group under government supervision. That directly attacks the grassroots network that gave the Brotherhood much of its strength in Egyptian society. The group is involved in a wide array of charities, providing cheap or free food, clothing and medical care to poor Egyptians.

The Brotherhood lashed out at the move, using a sectarian tone. It said the freezing of the funds aims to “fight Islam” and opens the door for “Christian groups to draw poor Muslims away from their religion” by stepping in with charity.

They have mainly targeted security forces and troops in the Sinai Peninsula, but they have also spread to Cairo and other parts of the country. The deadliest bombing yet came on Tuesday, when a suicide car bomber hit a security headquarters in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura, killing 16 people, almost all policemen.

With the terrorism label, the government is accusing the Brotherhood of being behind the militant campaign — as well as pervious violence dating back to the 1940s — though authorities have offered no proof. The group denies the accusations.

The homemade bomb in Thursday’s blast in Cairo appeared intended to cause panic rather than casualties, the Interior Ministry’s top explosives expert Gen. Alaa Abdel-Zaher told private CBC television.

The bomb, planted in a busy intersection near schools in Cairo’s eastern district of Nasr City, went off at 9 a.m. It shattered windows on a passing public bus, and flying glass injured five people, one of them seriously, the Interior Ministry said.

Another remote-control bomb, attached to a nearby billboard, was discovered and defused, apparently intended to hit security forces who responded to the first, state TV reported.

Islamic militant groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings and shootings. The most prominent militant group, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, announced it carried out Tuesday’s suicide bombing in Mansoura to avenge the “shedding of innocent Muslim blood” by the “apostate regime.”

So far, there is no solid evidence that al-Qaida inspired group is connected to the Brotherhood. During his year-long presidency, Morsi allied with hardline Islamists and held mediated talks with militants in Sinai to negotiate a truce.

Last week, a new trial of the ousted leader and more than 30 others was announced on charges of conspiring with terrorist groups before, during and after Morsi’s presidency.

In a statement late Wednesday, the Brotherhood-led alliance vowed to escalate protests, saying, “Today we are at the doorstep of a turning point in the revolutionary escalation after the coup leaders insisted on terrorism and violence.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/26/after-branding-it-terrorist-group-egypt-hikes-crackdown-on-muslim-brotherhood/feed/2stdAn army officer tries to control the crowd as he escorts an Islamist man out of Cairo's Al-Fath mosque where Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi held up on August 17, 2013. The standoff at al-Fath mosque in central Ramses Square began on August 16, with security forces surrounding the building where Islamists were sheltering and trying to convince them to leave.AP Photo/Amr NabilKelly McParland: U.S. sticks with half-measures in limited response to Egyptian killingshttp://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/09/kelly-mcparland-u-s-sticks-with-half-measures-in-limited-response-to-egyptian-killings/
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/10/09/kelly-mcparland-u-s-sticks-with-half-measures-in-limited-response-to-egyptian-killings/#commentsWed, 09 Oct 2013 18:03:08 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=131985

The United States is having a terrible time trying to make up its mind about its relations with Egypt.

When President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in 2011, Washington was torn between support for a man who had been a long-time ally, or the seemingly more democratic nature of the forces replacing him. In the end it did neither very well, and attracted the derision of both.

It was similarly torn when a new usurper, General Abdelfatah Al-Seesi, ousted the elected government of President Mohammed Morsi in July and installed a military regime in its place. Mr. Morsi has been in detention ever since, while turmoil has spread across the country. While clucking its tongue about the situation, Washington refused to label it a coup, and in a speech at the UN General Assembly last month, President Barack Obama tread carefully around the situation, noting only that Al-Seesi’s government had “made decisions inconsistent with inclusive democracy.” That could include, for instance, killing 51 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood at a weekend rally in Cairo.

Now a new set of half-measures has been semi-announced. White House officials have let it be known Washington will cut back on its aid to Egypt, but will not cancel it altogether.

The decision, which is expected to be announced in the coming days, will hold up the delivery of several types of military hardware to the Egyptian military, these officials said, including tanks, helicopters and fighter jets. But it will not affect aid for counterterrorism operations or for border security issues involving the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza.

Mr. Obama’s spokespeople had earlier been quick to deny reports that Washington planned to freeze its full annual $1.55 billion assistance package.

“We will announce the future of our assistance relationship with Egypt in the coming days, but as the President made clear at [the UN], that assistance relationship will continue,” said a National Security Council statement.

Barely had that denial been issued when Cairo announced a trial date for Morsi on charges of inciting murder and violence. When the trial begins on Nov. 4, the Associated Press notes, Egypt will have two ex-presidents facing charges, as Mr. Mubarak is to be re-tried on similar charges to those facing Mr. Morsi. Both relate to deaths caused when the two men sought to fight off protesters aimed at deposing them.

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The partial cut-off planned by the U.S. is expected to affect some arms supplies, and “nonmilitary aid that flows directly to the government,” but not support for education or hospitals. Even that level of disapproval will be watered down, however. The German news service, Deutsche Welle, reports that the funds for Egyptian military aid never leaves the U.S., but flows to American firms.

As soon as the U.S. Congress approves the payments, the money goes to an account at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. The bank transfers the aid to a trust fund at the Treasury, and from there to U.S. military contractors and suppliers.

The contracting parties, some of them multinational groups with subsidiaries in the U.S., must be based in the US and it is essential that they employ personnel in the US. As a result, the financial aid does not go to Cairo, but to America’s heartland, creating more or less state-subsidized jobs.

Thus the cut-off will have more impact on the troubled U.S. economy, already struggling with political gridlock in Washington and a looming debt default, than on Egypt’s generals, who in any case have been supported with $12 billion in loans from Saudi Arabia and other regional sympathizers. Deutsche Welle adds that the Egyptian military is already so well supplied that some tanks are sitting unused in warehouses.

In his UN speech, Mr. Obama refuted suggestions Washington couldn’t make up its mind. “In fact, the United States has purposely avoided choosing sides,” he said.

“Our overriding interest throughout these past few years has been to encourage a government that legitimately reflects the will of the Egyptian people, and recognizes true democracy as requiring a respect for minority rights and the rule of law, freedom of speech and assembly, and a strong civil society.”

CAIRO — Egypt’s interim prime minister said Saturday his government is putting priority on increasing security to restore peace and improve the country’s economy after new unrest following the coup that toppled the country’s president.

Hazem el-Beblawi also told reporters that a clear political process is needed to reassure the country’s international allies concerned about Egypt’s continued instability.

President Mohammed Morsi was ousted in a July 3 military coup that followed four days of mass demonstrations calling on the Islamist leader to step down. Since his ouster, Morsi supporters have kept up their protests, and authorities moved in to break-up two of their sit-ins, leading to clashes causing hundreds of deaths.

On Saturday, el-Beblawi said he lamented the violence but promised that the government was determined to deal firmly with any attempts to create chaos.

“We are sorry for the number of injured, … we all feel it is a great loss,” he said. “But if the price is that people don’t feel secure… we won’t accept that.”

El-Beblawi also acknowledged that providing security alone is not enough, saying the country “must go down the political path” to work out its democratic transition and find reconciliation. However, he said no one who used violence would be allowed to participate.

Authorities have accused Morsi supporters of starting violence and carrying out attacks against churches and government buildings. Morsi supporters deny their protests are violent, accusing authorities of smearing their movement.

“Those who don’t accept the principles of no use of violence, no religion in politics, no attacks against minorities and no discrimination” should be excluded, el-Beblawi said.

A military-backed timetable calls for the country’s constitution to be amended and parliamentary and presidential elections to be held early next year.

El-Beblawi also dismissed accusations that the release Thursday of jailed autocrat Hosni Mubarak was a return to Egypt’s old political order. He said Mubarak’s release was in accordance with the law.

Mubarak was released following an appeal from his lawyers and is now under house arrest pending a trial that reconvenes Sunday. His release raised tensions in a country already roiled by instability following the coup against Morsi.

El-Beblawi’s comments came a day after Morsi supporters organized new protests. The marches were smaller than usual and remained largely peaceful, though a few clashes broke out, killing two people.

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s military turned out in force as thousands calling for the ousted president’s reinstatement held scattered protests across Cairo, but the Muslim Brotherhood failed to bring out huge numbers in a sign that an intense crackdown has dealt a serious blow to the 85-year-old group’s support base.

In a day dubbed the “Friday of Martyrs,” Islamists in groups of hundreds chanted against the military and held up posters of deposed leader Mohammed Morsi on side streets and outside neighbourhood mosques. At least one person was killed in clashes in the Delta city of Tanta, but there was no major fighting.

Thousands marched through the streets of Cairo’s Nasr City district, some chanting: “We are willing to sacrifice our lives” and “We promise the martyrs that we will end military rule,” in reference to the several hundred people that died in clashes with Egypt’s military during raids on street camps this month. One man held aloft a picture of Morsi with the words, “the legitimate president.”

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But large rallies taking over main streets and squares failed to materialize as armoured vehicles and soldiers were deployed outside mosques and other strategic areas. The military also closed off main streets, some flyovers and barricaded Tahrir Square and other plazas in a show of force aimed at preventing the pro-Morsi camp from gathering en masse.

Armoured vehicles surrounded the presidential palace and blocked the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque, where Morsi supporters had held a sit-in for weeks that was violently dispersed on Aug. 14, resulting in the deaths of hundreds.

Those who did rally avoided major thoroughfares and squares that had been swamped by Morsi supporters in the weeks since he was toppled in a military coup on July 3.

The low turnout signalled the Muslim Brotherhood was having difficulty putting on a large show of dissent after an exceptionally violent week and the arrests of nearly all of the group’s senior leaders, including its spiritual guide Mohammed Badie. Another 80 Brotherhood members, including senior leaders and spokesmen, were taken into custody on Thursday, ahead of the planned rallies.

Authorities also have imposed a strictly enforced dusk to dawn curfew over the past week in Cairo and other provinces, emptying streets by nightfall.

It was difficult for the media to even find a Brotherhood official for comment.

The protests that did occur paled in comparison to last week’s demonstrations when the capital descended into chaos as tens of thousands of Morsi supporters went out in defiance of the military’s newly introduced emergency measures. Last Friday, vigilantes at neighbourhood checkpoints battled Morsi supporters across the capital in unprecedented clashes between residents that left 82 people dead — 72 civilians and 10 policemen.

Marwan Naamani / AFP / Getty ImagesA fully veiled supporter of Egypt's toppled president Mohamed Morsi, holds a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, during a demonstration against the Islamist leader's ouster following Friday noon prayers in Cairo, on August 23, 2013

One pro-Morsi protester, 47-year-old Mohamed Ahmed, insisted the movement against what the Brotherhood calls an “illegitimate” coup would continue.

“Everybody knows there could be a bloodbath. But as long as we are fighting for our rights, with God’s will, we will win,” he said as he joined protesters gathering outside a mosque following prayers in Giza, a satellite city of Cairo and home to the famous Pyramids.

“There were many arrests lately among the Brotherhood ranks. The army and the police are killing people so they can impose their will and their power. But they will fail because after the revolution people are not afraid anymore,” he added.

Few clashes broke out between the demonstrators and locals who largely pelted each with rocks. Police fired tear gas to stop rival camps from clashing knives and birdshot in the Delta city of Tanta. One pro-Morsi supporter was killed and 26 were injured in the fighting, a local medical official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Marwan Naamani / AFP / Getty ImagesSupporters of Egypt's toppled president Mohamed Morsi (portrait) shout slogans and flash a four finger symbol, known as "Rabaa", which means four in Arabic, to remember those killed in the crackdown on the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo earlier in the month, during a demonstration against the Islamist leader's ouster following Friday noon prayers in Cairo, on August 23, 2013

On the other side of the political divide, demonstrations against the release of deposed leader Hosni Mubarak, who was placed under house arrest in a military hospital in southern Cairo, also drew low numbers. Dozens of anti-Morsi and anti-Mubarak protesters held a rally outside Cairo’s high court amid tight security.

Mubarak is still facing trial on charges of complicity in the killing of nearly 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising against him. But his release was viewed by many who rebelled against him as a setback in their campaign to hold him accountable for years of abuse and corruption.

But in a sign of the country’s deep division, one group that had spearheaded the 2011 revolution against the autocrat called off its rally against Mubarak’s release. The April 6 group said it wanted to avoid being joined by pro-Morsi supporters “who may take advantage of (our) mobilization for their own interests.”

Morsi was ousted after millions took to the streets to call for him to step down, accusing him of trying to monopolize power, letting his Muslim Brotherhood take over state institutions and ignoring calls for real reform. His defenders counter that he was up against pro-Mubarak officials who conspired to block him, and that the military leadership sought to undermine Egypt’s progress toward democracy.

Since Morsi’s ouster, hundreds of Egyptians have been killed in the worst bout of violence since 2011.

Despite the standoff, the military-backed interim government pushed ahead with its road map for a post-Morsi political transition. A first draft of an amended version of the now-suspended constitution was finalized and published in local media, the first step toward changing the Islamist-backed charter that fueled opposition to Morsi.

The Brotherhood’s political party said on its Facebook page that the Friday rallies were against the coup and were seeking to “recapture” the spirit of the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak in 2011. But the numbers remained in the hundreds and thousands by nightfall.

Many protesters raised yellow stickers showing an open palm with four raised fingers, which has become a symbol for the main sit-in that was disbanded violently near the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque. In northern Cairo, demonstrators raised a banner that read: “Mubarak and his aides acquitted while the Egyptian people are hanged.”

Somaya Mahfouz, a member of the Brotherhood political party who took part in a protest in Giza, shouted at passing cars: “Mubarak is coming back to rule us again.”

Angrily she said: “What is happening now has nothing to do with the Brotherhood. It is a war against Islam.”

In the typical cycle of presidential power, an incumbent nearing the half-way point of a second term — power leaking away as lame duck status approaches — starts to despair of getting anything done on his domestic agenda, and turns increasingly to foreign affairs.

Not Barack Obama. If anything, Mr. Obama would probably welcome a few local crises, the better to avoid more of the humiliation being heaped on Washington in the Middle East.

On Thursday morning, reports indicated former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak had been released from prison and transported by helicopter to a military hospital. The U.S. was strongly opposed to his release, just as it has been strongly opposed to much else that has happened in Egypt over the past several weeks. It warned Egypt’s military against ousting President Mohamed Morsi; it warned against using force against encampments of Morsi’s followers; it pressed for dialogue between military leaders and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Bodo Marks/AFP/Getty ImagesWater of the Elbe river floods the fish market in Hamburg, northern Germany, on January 6, 2012. Low-pressure system "Andrea" provoked heavy rainfalls and storms in wide parts of the country.

It was ignored on all fronts. On Tuesday the supreme leader of the Brotherhood was arrested at a Cairo apartment. On Thursday Mubarak was freed. Morsi remains in detention at an undisclosed location.

Obama, meanwhile, dithers over whether to proceed with an inadequate response. If he so orders, the U.S. would halt $1.3 billion in military aid to Cairo. Not that it matters much to Egypt’s new rulers: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have already pledged many times that amount in assistance.

The message is that the U.S. can be safely ignored. It’s amplified by the fact much of the promised aid is coming from Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally. Washington would prefer the Saudis refrain from propping up the new, unelected Egyptian government, but the Saudis are dong so anyway, with enthusiasm.

The UN long ago showed itself incapable of dealing with Syria, hobbled by Russia’s place on the Security Council and its determination to stand by Assad.

If it looks frail in Egypt, the Obama administration looks helpless in Syria. Reports continue to suggest hundreds of civilians, including many children, died horrible deaths following a chemical attack by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian government denies it, but has yet to grant access to the scene to a United Nations team that’s in the country to investigate reports of previous chemical attacks. Media assessments note that it’s almost exactly a year since Mr. Obama said the use of chemical weapons would constitute a “red line” that, if crossed, would provoke a U.S. response. But there’s been no such response, and not much expectation that one is imminent.

The Washington Post, in an opinion posted by its editorial board, writes that the alleged attack appears to fulfill warnings that Washington’s failure to respond vigorously to earlier violations would only embolden Assad.

Mr. Assad logically could have concluded that he had little to fear from the United States, even if chemical weapons use were escalated. Mr. Obama’s hesitant and indecisive response to the massive carnage carried out by Egypt’s military-backed regime last week only strengthened the picture of a president unwilling to act in the Middle East.

A White House statement issued in response to the latest attack failed to repeat the “red line” pledge, it noted. Instead it offered the flaccid assertion that “those responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable.”

The obvious response is: “Yes, but by who?”

AP Photo/Shaam News NetworkThis image provided by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, purports to show bodies of victims of an attack on Ghouta.

Not the United Nations. The UN long ago showed itself incapable of dealing with Syria, hobbled by Russia’s place on the Security Council and its determination to stand by Assad. The official line is that a planned Washington/Moscow summit in Geneva would seek a position the two could share. But hopes of success were never great, and declined further when Mr. Obama — upset that Russia granted asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden — cancelled a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin and suggested the Russian leader “[has] got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom.”

Russia has already dismissed the chemical attack as a clever ruse perpetrated by Assad’s opponents. The U.S. feels it has to go through with the Geneva exercise anyway, to justify taking a tougher line later. That’s of little consolation to the anti-Assad forces. As Josh Rogin, in The Daily Beast, reported:

“Unofficially, [American officials] say, ‘You sit down at the table and you say you need Assad to go and they say no, and then the negotiations fail and we move on to the stage,’” said [Khalid Saleh, official spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition] “It is difficult to explain to the fathers of the dead children that we need to do this as a political maneuver.”

All the evidence suggests Mr. Obama simply isn’t convinced direct military action will work, if it means the U.S. overwhelmingly takes the lead. The allegations, infuriating as they are, remain unproven, and it is not beyond possibility that one of the extremist factions battling Assad would stoop to such an atrocity to manipulate opinion. The New York Times reports there are a number of conflicting signs suggesting videos of the slaughter are anything but conclusive.

The White House can’t simply act for the sake of acting, much as that might temporarily satisfy public opinion. But vacillating, as it is doing now, simply adds to impressions of its powerlessness and further emboldens powers, like those in Egypt, that chafe at the restraints it imposes.

The Post, for one, has had enough. Never a conservative voice, it nonetheless insists delay is unacceptable.

The United States should be using its own resources to determine, as quickly as possible, whether the opposition’s reports of large-scale use of gas against civilians are accurate. If they are, Mr. Obama should deliver on his vow not to tolerate such crimes — by ordering direct U.S. retaliation against the Syrian military forces responsible and by adopting a plan to protect civilians in southern Syria with a no-fly zone.

Mr. Obama drew the red line. The consequences of failing to act now would be a growing legacy of human misery.

Bernard-Henri Levy would probably love to have the power accorded him by Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Levy is a French “intellectual” — only in France, perhaps, is “intellectual” considered a job description — and author. Two years ago he appeared at a press conference with the visiting Israeli opposition leader, Tzipi Livni. Questioned about the Egyptian uprising then underway, and the prospect of an Islamist government gaining power, he said: “I will urge the prevention of them coming to power, but by all sorts of means.”

Not much in the way of revolutionary rhetoric, admittedly. “All sorts of means” could mean … all sorts of things. Including the mounting of an effective democratic campaign in opposition.

But that one line was enough for Erdogan, who used it to justify his allegation that Israel was behind the military coup against duly elected President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Morsi has been held in an unknown location since being ousted by Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who shows every intention of hanging onto power. This week his government decided former strongman Hosni Mubarak would be freed, while Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie would be jailed.

Erdogan, who has been loudly opposed to the coup — as have many western and other governments — insisted in a nationally televised speech that Israel was responsible for the turmoil in Egypt.

“What is said about Egypt? That democracy is not the ballot box. Who is behind this? Israel is. We have the evidence in our hands,” he said. “That’s exactly what happened.” An aide pointed to the Levy comment as the “evidence.”

Not surprisingly, many observers have admitted bafflement at the idea that an ambiguous comment by a French philosopher would be enough to dictate political events in Egypt. Who knew the Egyptian armed forces were such fervent apostles of Bernard-Henri Levy? Evidently in their off hours — when they weren’t busy enjoying the lucrative commercial enterprises they established under Mubarak, the generals were debating the philosophical leanings of a man described by the Financial Times as “philosopher, film-maker, action man, saviour of Libya, scourge of pithiness, peripatetic paramour and shirt-button revisionist.” Levy’s most recent activity has been an exhibition in the south of France that “charts the relationship between art and philosophy since the dawn of western thought.” It’s not clear if the generals managed to get tickets.

Levy isn’t actually an Israeli. He was born in Algeria and moved to Paris as a child. And Livni, who presumably acted as his conduit to the coup-fomenters in Israel, isn’t prime minister, but merely justice minister. Though she now sits in Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet (having failed in a bid to form her own government), she commands a limited political following and is generally considered to be on the more moderate side of Israel’s political spectrum. Recently named chief negotiator in U.S.-brokered peace talks with the Palestinians, she pledged to make “dramatic” decisions to obtain a deal.

Pretty strange background for an accused coup-plotter, but that’s Israel for you. In Erdogan’s eyes, a dovish justice minister and peripatetic French Jew is all it takes to dictate policy to Egypt. The international zionist conspiracy is that strong.

Many observers have admitted bafflement at the idea that an ambiguous comment by a French philosopher would be enough to dictate political events in Egypt.

Egypt’s new rulers seemed mystified by the suggestion, calling it “baseless”, “very bewildering” and “not accepted by any logic or rational.” They may have their reasons for mowing down hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, annulling a democratic election and re-instituting a system of government that inspired a national revolt just two years ago, but pleasing Israel appears not to be one of them. Indeed, Netanyahu’s government gave indications of having reconciled itself to the reality of the Morsi government, which had publicly pledged to abide by a longstanding peace deal with Israel.

The Turkish leader’s real concern may be the isolation he feels within the Middle East. A number of other regional powers have indicated strong support for al-Sisi’s government, fearing both the prospect of Islamic extremism, and the threat that democratically-elected Islamic governments represent to the region’s hereditary monarchies.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have both backed the generals despite fierce western criticism. The New York Times reported that “Saudi Arabia delivered a blank check to Cairo, promising to shower it with money as needed.” While the U.S. dithers over whether to cancel $1.3 billion in annual aid, the Saudis have pledged a $12 billion rescue package.

Before launching his allegations against Livni and Levy, Erdogan’s government had even assailed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for doing too little on behalf of the Egyptian Islamist and demanded its secretary-general — a fellow Turk — should resign. That, and the other evidence suggests Turkey’s problems are much closer to home that an international Israeli conspiracy.

What are they really up to?In a remarkably facile and woefully under-edited piece in TheGlobe and Mail, Ashley Martyn, who is (and who should focus more on being) “a social media manager for Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau,” accuses the Conservatives of being disreputable laggards on gay rights — despite Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s interventions in Russia and Uganda; despite it “becom[ing] a cornerstone of their foreign affairs policy to push for gay rights internationally”; and despite “even [holding] a gathering for gay Tories, dubbed the Fabulous Blue Tent Party, which saw 700 gay Conservatives get together during the party’s 2012 convention in Ottawa,” all of which Martyn lauds.

This isn’t good enough, because only 13 Conservatives voted against reopening the same-sex marriage debate in 2006 (which, ahem, is exactly the number of Liberals who voted toreopen it); because not enough voted to include gender identity in human rights legislation; and because Stephen Harper, unlike David Cameron, refuses to “stand up for marriage equality.” Uh huh. Could that possibly be because same-sex marriage has been a fait accompli in Canada for seven years, and in Britain not even for a month? Nah. It’s probably that Harper thinks “gay people are second-class citizens.” Perhaps Conservatives could prove goodwill by having each MP pick a same-sex partner and suck face for half an hour on Parliament Hill’s front lawn.

Moving on to real business, the National Post‘s John Ivison notes that Canada Post, one of the country’s biggest employers, says it could well “run out of cash by Easter” — which is another welcome reminder, as Ivison says, that its current business model is not sustainable and needs a serious long-term rethink.

The Toronto Star‘s editorialistsargue that if Alison Redford and other Alberta MLAs can post their detailed expenses online — which they can, and do — then there’s no reason MPs and senators can’t as well. And as they say, assuming he follows through, the longer Justin Trudeau promises that his MPs will do so in the fall while Harper stays “mute as a carp” on the subject, the worse the Conservatives look.

Of protests and policeIn the Globe, Jim Chu, president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, begins by assuring us, plausibly, that “no police officer ever comes to work hoping that they will have to point their gun at someone and fire”; and, less plausibly, that none are ever “eager to use a less deadly form of force such as a Taser or baton.” Has he watched any videos from the G20? We have no doubt that police officers successfully and peacefully de-escalate the vast majority of situations they encounter, and we can hardly argue against Chu’s plea not to “rush too quickly to judgment” after fatal police incidents. But it’s all a bit … whiny. Yes, the officer who shot Sammy Yatim in Toronto is owed due process; yes, his “decision … will stay with [him] the rest of [his life].” But that’s hardly a comparable plight to being dead.

We sure missed Crazy Rick Salutin while his more sober twin was minding the column. Crazy Rick, back in action in the Star, “see[s] no basic difference between the Cairo carnage and the death of a distressed teenager on the Dundas streetcar last month” — well, except that one is “political” and the other “individual,” and one involved a “low-level cop” and the other “the Egyptian deep state.” But those differences aren’t “basic,” apparently. Nor, he suggests, are there “basic” differences between “illegitimate” though democratically elected governments like Mohammed Morsi’s and Stephen Harper’s — we just choose to behave as though there are, like sheep. We wonder what a real live Egyptian would think of a column implying that Canadians are in the same boat.

Ontario affairsThe Ottawa Citizen‘s editorialists concede that artificially inflating the price of beer could be justifiable on health grounds. And if Ontario’s Beer Stores “were entirely or even mostly Canadian owned,” theysuppose the considerable premium Ontarians pay for beer compared to Quebec could also “at least supply a wrong-headed nationalist argument for artificially padding its profits.” Instead, that premium goes straight into the coffers of the three foreign brewers that own the Beer Store. Which is, as the Citizen says, indefensible and stupid.

The Toronto Sun’s editorialistsand the Post‘s Kelly McParlandthink that rebellious Ontario Tories are accomplishing nothing by grumbling about Tim Hudak’s leadership except heartening Premier Kathleen Wynne about her election prospects. They’re probably right. We’re becoming increasingly convinced that they do need to switch leaders, and that the Liberals may well pull off a spectacularly undeserved election win. But now’s not the time. The time was some time ago.

SocietyIn the Star, Pierre Martin argues that full-scale Olympic boycotts have been conclusively proven futile, and are “blatantly unfair to athletes who have sacrificed so much for the sole purpose of competing in their sport’s ultimate event.” But suggests that boycotting the men’s hockey tournament specifically could offer real “leverage” against Russia’s new anti-gay legislation. Hmm. It’s certainly the “marquee event,” but the fact that “few [players] would argue that the Olympics rank first in their priorities” doesn’t really bolster the case, does it? Surely boycotts are more meaningful the more sacrifice they involve.

CAIRO — The death toll in Egypt has climbed to at least 60 people as clashes took an even darker turn on Friday.

Heavy gunfire rang out throughout Cairo as tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters clashed with vigilante residents in the fiercest street battles to engulf the capital since the country’s Arab Spring uprising.

Carrying pistols and assault rifles, residents battled with protesters taking part in what the Brotherhood called the “Day of Rage,” ignited by anger at security forces for clearing two sit-in demonstrations Wednesday in clashes that killed more than 600 people.

As military helicopters circled overhead, residents furious with the Brotherhood protesters pelted them with rocks and glass bottles. The two sides also fired on one another, sparking running street battles.

Unlike in past clashes between protesters and police, Friday’s clashes took an even darker turn when residents and possibly police in civilian clothing engaged in the violence. Police in uniform were nowhere to be seen as residents fired at one another on a bridge that crosses over Zamalek in Cairo, an upscale island neighborhood where many foreigners and ambassadors reside.

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The Brotherhood-led marches in Cairo headed toward Ramses Square, near the country’s main train station. The area is also near Tahrir Square, where the army put up barbed wires and tanks as a buffer between the protesters and a small anti-Brotherhood encampment in the square.

At least 12 people were killed in Ramses Square after protesters clashed with residents in the area, security officials said. Associated Press photographers saw many of the dead inside the nearby Al-Fath mosque, which had turned into a field hospital. Some appeared to have been shot in the head and chest during an attack on a police station.

Across the country, at least 29 civilians were killed in the clashes and eight police officers also were killed, security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Armed police men slowly walking along bridge towards people trapped at azbakeya statiom

The violence erupted shortly after midday weekly prayers when tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters answered the group’s call to protest across Egypt in defiance of a military-imposed state of emergency following the country’s bloodshed earlier this week.

Armed civilians manned impromptu checkpoints throughout the capital, banning Brotherhood marches from approaching and frisking anyone wanting to pass through. In one checkpoint, residents barred ambulances and cars carrying wounded from Ramses from passing to reach the hospital.

The scenes highlighted how deep divisions in Egypt have become. At least eight police stations were attacked Friday as well, officials said. Egypt’s police force was rocked by the country’s 2011 uprising that ousted longtime Presidents Hosni Mubarak from power and has not fully recovered since.

Ed Giles/Getty ImagesSupporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi gather at the Fateh Mosque in Ramses Square for midday prayer on August 16, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt.

On Thursday, the Interior Ministry said it had authorized the use of deadly force against anyone targeting police and state institutions. But the threat appeared not to intimidate protesters.

Brotherhood protester Tawfik Dessouki said he was ready to fight for “democracy” and against the military’s ouster of Morsi.

“I am here for the blood of the people who died. We didn’t have a revolution to go back to a police and military state again and to be killed by the state,” he said.

Also Friday, security officials said assailants detonated explosives on train tracks between Alexandria and the western Mediterranean Sea province of Marsa Matrouh. There were no injuries and no trains were damaged from the attack, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, has been in turmoil since Morsi was removed from power by the military on July 3, following days of mass protests against him and his Brotherhood group. But Morsi’s supporters have remained defiant, demanding the coup be overturned. The international community has urged both sides in Egypt to show restraint and end the turmoil engulfing the nation.

AP Photo/Hassan AmmarEgyptian Army soldiers stand guard outside the Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque, in the center of the largest protest camp of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, that was cleared by security forces, in the district of Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Aug. 16, 2013.

The Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, said in a statement Friday that the group is not backing down and “will continue to mobilize people to take to the streets without resorting to violence and without vandalism.”

“The struggle to overthrow this illegitimate regime is an obligation, an Islamic, national, moral, and human obligation which we will not steer away from until justice and freedom prevail, and until repression is conquered,” the statement said.

The group said in another statement that its protests were peaceful.

The revolutionary and liberal groups that helped topple Morsi have largely stayed away from street rallying in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, state-run and private television stations have been broadcasting footage from Wednesday’s violence they say shows armed men firing toward security forces. Graphic videos have emerged online portraying the violence from the protesters’ side.

One video, authenticated by The Associated Press based on landmarks and reporting from Wednesday’s crackdown, shows armored personnel carriers driving protesters back from an area near the main sit-in as continuous volleys of automatic gunfire ring out.

KHALED KAMEL/AFP/Getty ImagesAn Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood supporter walks near fires in Cairo's Ramses square on August 16, 2013 as clashes broke out with police during a demonstration in support of Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

In the footage, the crowd retreats after throwing stones at the approaching vehicles, leaving several bloodied men motionless on the ground. After a loudspeaker announcement instructs the crowd to evacuate, promising safe passage, a vehicle approaches and the barrel of a weapon emerges from one of its gun ports.

Associated Press writer Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

AFP PHOTO STR-/AFP/Getty ImagesEgyptian president Mohamed Morsi loyalists raise up posters of him shouting slogans during a march on August 16, 2013 in Alexandria to protest against the killing of hundreds of fellow loyalists following a security crackdown two days before.

Reactions on Friday around the world to developments in Egypt following clashes in which hundreds of people were killed and thousands injured:

INDONESIAThousands of protesters took to the streets after Friday prayers, in several cities across Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, calling for the bloodshed in Egypt to end. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in his annual state-of-the-nation address that the excessive force used to disperse demonstrations in Egypt was against democratic values and humanity. He called on all parties to “build compromise and seek a win-win solution.”

TURKEYTurkish officials kept up their criticism of the military government’s crackdown, with President Abdullah Gul saying that “all that happened in Egypt is a shame for Islam and the Arab world.” Turkey and Egypt recalled their ambassadors for consultations late Thursday as their relationship worsened.

GERMANYThe Foreign Ministry urged its citizens to refrain from traveling to Egypt, extending a previous warning to include Red Sea beach resorts around Hurghada and Sharm El-Sheik. Germans who are already in beach resorts were advised to be vigilant and stay in close touch with hotel management and travel agents. The German Travel Association said most Germany travel companies have cancelled all bookings to Egypt until Sept. 15.

The German government also announced it was suspending 25 million euros in aid to Egypt for climate and environmental protection projects. Funding for new development projects will not be approved for the time being, said Development Minister Dirk Niebel.

EUROPEAN UNIONFrench President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel want European Union foreign ministers to meet next week to coordinate a response to the violence in Egypt. The two spoke by telephone on Friday, and called for an end to violence and a resumption of dialogue.

TALIBANThe Taliban condemned the violence and called for the restoration of Egypt’s deposed president, Mohammed Morsi. In a statement signed by The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the name under which the Taliban ruled Afghanistan until ousted by a U.S. invasion, they also called on international organizations to take practical steps to stop the violence and “not be satisfied with only condemning this barbaric incident.”

TUNISIAAbout 1,500 people flooded the main avenue in central Tunis, many of them pouring out of the capital’s most important mosque. They gathered in a large square in front of the municipal theater, shouting support for the Egyptian people, especially supporters of Morsi, and condemning the Egyptian military and the U.S. The hour-long protest was peaceful.

SWITZERLANDThe Foreign Ministry warned against all travel to Egypt, saying there was a risk that the violent clashes between government forces and protesters “will spread throughout the country.” The ministry advised Swiss citizens already in Egypt to keep informed, obey curfews and stay away from crowds or “events of all kinds.”

SPAIN
Spain’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Egyptian Embassy’s charge d’affaires, because the ambassador was absent, to urge Egypt to revoke the state of emergency and rein in its security forces. The priorities of the transitional government in Cairo should be to avoid more bloodshed and respect human rights, the ministry said in a statement. It said all sides should be included in “a broad national and inclusive dialogue” to restore institutional normality.

NORWAY
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide condemned the disproportionate violence against demonstrators in telephone conversation with Egypt’s interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi. “My message was that everything must be done to prevent a bloodbath, that the security forces must comply with international human rights obligations, and that all parties must show restraint,” the online Norway Post quoted Eide as saying.

FINLAND, SWEDEN, NORWAY AND DENMARKThe Nordic countries changed their advice to citizens, warning against all non-essential travel to Egypt. Several tour operators canceled trips to Egypt and began returning tourists early from holiday resorts.

POLANDThe Foreign Ministry is advising Poles against traveling to Egypt. However, the ministry said on its website that it considers Red Sea resorts safe. It also says Polish citizens in Egypt should avoid big cities, bazaars, shopping malls and museums.

Polish tourists returning from the beach resort of Hurghada told TVN24 in Warsaw that all tours were canceled, except visits to the town of Hurghada, and that armed guards were stationed at the town’s airport.

SAUDI ARABIAIn Saudi Arabia, whose rulers have given financial assistance to the post-Morsi government in Egypt, the top religious cleric called on Egyptians to refrain from attacking police “as they are the ones who protect the country.” The online Saudi newspaper Riyadh also quoted Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheik, who holds the rank of Cabinet minister, as saying that it would be “a great loss for the Muslim nation if Egypt, the big Islamic country, is destroyed

Key events in Egypt’s uprising and unrest

Here are some key events from more than two years of turmoil and transition in Egypt:

Jan. 25-Feb. 11, 2011 — Egyptians stage nationwide demonstrations against nearly 30 years of Mubarak’s rule. Hundreds of protesters are killed as Mubarak and his allies try to crush the uprising.

Feb. 11 — Mubarak steps down and the military takes over. The military dissolves parliament and suspends the constitution, meeting two key demands of protesters.

May 23-24, 2012 — The first round of voting in presidential elections has a field of 13 candidates. The Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister under Mubarak, emerge as the top two finishers, to face each other in a runoff.

June 14 — The Supreme constitutional Court orders the dissolving of the lower house of parliament.

June 16-17 — Egyptians vote in the presidential runoff between Morsi and Shafiq. Morsi wins with 51.7 per cent of the vote.

June 30 — Morsi takes his oath of office.

Nov. 19 — Members of liberal parties and representatives of Egypt’s churches withdraw from the 100-member assembly writing the constitution, protesting attempts by Islamists to impose their will.

Nov. 22 — Morsi unilaterally decrees greater powers for himself, giving his decisions immunity from judicial review and barring the courts from dissolving the constituent assembly and the upper house of parliament. The move sparks days of protests.

Nov. 30 — Islamists in the constituent assembly rush to complete the draft of the constitution. Morsi sets a Dec. 15 date for a referendum.

Dec. 4 — More than 100,000 protesters march on the presidential palace, demanding the cancellation of the referendum and the writing of a new constitution. The next day, Islamists attack an anti-Morsi sit-in, sparking street battles that leave at least 10 dead.

Dec. 15, Dec. 22 — In the two-round referendum, Egyptians approve the constitution, with 63.8 per cent voting in favour. Turnout is low.

Jan. 25, 2013 — Hundreds of thousands hold protests against Morsi on the 2-year anniversary of the start of the revolt against Mubarak, and clashes erupt in many places.

Feb.-March 2013 — Protests rage in Port Said and other cities for weeks, with dozens more dying in clashes.

April 7 — A Muslim mob attacks the main cathedral of the Coptic Orthodox Church as Christians hold a funeral and protest there over four Christians killed in sectarian violence the day before. Pope Tawadros II publicly blames Morsi for failing to protect the building.

June 23 — A mob beats to death four Egyptian Shiites in a village on the outskirts of Cairo.

June 30 — Millions of Egyptians demonstrate on Morsi’s first anniversary in office, calling on him to step down. Eight people are killed in clashes outside the Muslim Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters.

July 1 — Huge demonstrations continue, and Egypt’s powerful military gives the president and the opposition 48 hours to resolve their disputes, or it will impose its own solution.

July 2 — Military officials disclose main details of the army’s plan if no agreement is reached: replacing Morsi with an interim administration, cancelling the Islamist-based constitution and calling elections in a year. Morsi delivers a late-night speech in which he pledges to defend his legitimacy and vows not to step down.

July 3 — Egypt’s military chief announces that Morsi has been deposed, to be replaced by the Chief Justice of the Supreme constitutional Court until new presidential elections. No time frame is given. Muslim Brotherhood leaders are arrested. Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters remain camped out in two mass sit-ins in Cairo’s streets.

July 5 — Mansour dissolves the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament as Morsi’s supporters stage mass protests demanding his return. Clashes between pro- and anti-Morsi groups in Cairo and Alexandria, and violence elsewhere leave at least 36 dead. A Brotherhood strongman, deputy head Khairat el-Shater, is arrested.

July 8 — Egyptian soldiers open fire on pro-Morsi demonstrators in front of a military base in Cairo, killing more than 50. Each side blames the other for starting the clash near the larger of the two sit-ins, near east Cairo’s Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque. Mansour puts forward a time line for amending the constitution and electing a new president and parliament by mid-February. The Brotherhood refuses to participate in the process.

July 9 — Mansour appoints economist Hazem el-Beblawi as prime minister and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei as vice-president. A military announcement backs up the appointments.

July 26 — Millions pour into the streets of Egypt after a call by the country’s military chief for protesters to give him a mandate to stop “potential terrorism” by supporters of Morsi. Five people are killed in clashes. Prosecutors announce Morsi is under investigation for a host of allegations including murder and conspiracy with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

July 27 — Security forces and armed men in civilian clothes clash with Morsi supporters outside the larger of the two major sit-ins in Cairo, killing at least 80 people.

July 30 — The EU’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton holds a two-hour meeting with detained Morsi at an undisclosed location. She is one of a number of international envoys, including U.S. Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, to visit Egypt to attempt to resolve the crisis.

Aug. 7 — Egypt’s presidency says that diplomatic efforts to peacefully resolve the standoff between the country’s military-backed interim leadership and the Muslim Brotherhood have failed.

Aug. 11 — Egyptian security forces announce that they will besiege the two sit-ins within 24 hours to bar people from entering.

Aug. 12 — Authorities postpone plans to take action against the camps, saying they want to avoid bloodshed after Morsi supporters reinforce the sit-ins with thousands more protesters.

Aug. 14 — Riot police backed by armoured vehicles and bulldozers clear two sprawling encampments of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, sparking clashes that kill at least 638 people. The presidency declares a monthlong state of emergency across the nation as Vice-President Mohamed ElBaradei resigns in protest over the assaults.

Aug. 15 — The Interior Ministry authorizes police to use deadly force against protesters targeting police and state institutions after Islamists torch government buildings, churches and police stations in retaliation against the crackdown on their encampments.

Aug. 16 — Heavy gunfire rings out in the heart of Cairo as tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood supporters take to the streets across Egypt in defiance of the military-imposed state of emergency. At least 17 people die in the fighting, including police officers.

If there ever was an optimistic moment for the future of democracy in the post-Arab Spring Middle East, it certainly died in the military crackdown on protesters Wednesday that saw at least 525 people killed. The failure of Egypt’s first fling at democracy holds the dubious honour of being bad news for almost everyone, from Egyptians who thought military rule was a thing of the past, to regional leaders who supported the democratic experiment, to western powers looking for Egyptian stability.

“It’s official,” declared a headline in Israel’s Jerusalem Post. “Military chief Sisi is the new king of Egypt.”

Though the military still plans to hold elections for a new government, “it seems ever more apparent that elections will likely not be free and that Egyptian governments will probably rule at the pleasure of Sisi,” it says.

Already, reports indicate General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is being strategically lionized as the successor to Gamel Abdel Nasser, the military commander who organized the overthrow of the last king of Egypt and ruled as president for 14 years, while waging war on the Muslim Brotherhood. Sisi’s generals have squashed the first Brotherhood-led government and seized President Mohamed Morsi, holding him in an undisclosed location despite demands he be released.

National Post GraphicsClick to enlarge

There is little expectation, in the West as well as parts of the Middle East, that Sisi’s coup and the slaughter that took place Wednesday will work out well. In neighbouring Tunisia, where the supposed birth of Arab democracy began in 2011 with the revolt of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the head of the ruling Islamic party admitted the new regime has failed to improve economic conditions or living standards and pleaded for more time.

“We’ve made mistakes, but that doesn’t merit a coup d’etat,” said Ennahda party chairman Rached Ghannouchi.

Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan , target of widespread protests himself over his increasingly autocratic rule, demanded Morsi be released and said western leaders shared the guilt for the “massacre” by ignoring mounting bloodshed in Egypt.

“Those who ignore the coup and don’t even display the honorable behavior of calling a ‘coup’ a ‘coup,’ share in the guilt of the massacre of those children,” Erdogan said. “Anyone or any international organization that remains silent and takes no action has the blood of those innocent children on their hands, just like those who carried out the coup.”

The Turkish leader was scathing in his denunciation of Western tactics since national protests led to the overthrow of former strongman Hosni Mubarak two years ago. Though the U.S. — which was among Mubarak’s most powerful allies — did nothing to halt his fall, it also did little to embrace or assist his replacement. When Morsi was ousted it lectured the generals, but did not halt military assistance and avoided calling it a “coup.”

“You have ignored (the Palestinian territories), you have ignored Syria and still do,” Erdogan said. “At this stage what right do you have to speak of democracy, of universal values, of human rights and freedoms?”

He suggested there was a plot against Islamic governments, of which his is among the most successful.

Aside from Morsi and his backers in the Brotherhood, the liberal leaders who temporarily joined the interim government may be the most notable victims of Wednesday’s bloodshed. “The choice of ‘total security’ has also killed the political credibility of the liberals,” wrote Christophe Ayad in Le Monde. Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Prize winner who put his reputation on the line in joining the interim government, resigned in protest, calling the assault unnecessary.

“I saw that there were peaceful ways to end this clash in society, there were proposed and acceptable solutions for beginnings that would take us to national consensus,” he wrote.

“The beneficiaries of what happened today are those who call for violence, terrorism and the most extreme groups”.

Writing in the Middle East Monitor, Abdel Bari Atwan denounced ElBaradei “and his liberal partners in crime” for giving credibility to the military following Mosri’s overthrow.

The Egyptian Revolution has ended. In fact, the revolutions in the other Arab countries have ended as well, although there is no room for me to discuss the reasons for that here. Both Egypt and the Arab world have entered a long dark tunnel and there appears to be no light at the end of it.

Considering the results in the Iowa caucuses, what are the trailing Republican candidates going to do to chase Mitt Romney?After a breathtakingly close set of Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney has established himself as the clear front-runner in the race for the U.S. Republican nomination. As Romney prepares for New Hampshire, where he has a commanding lead in the polls, the rest of the field are assessing their campaigns.
The results surprised many, with some candidates surging (Rick Santorum) and others not getting the boost they needed (Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry). Considering the results (below), what are the candidates going to do to chase down Romney?
<blockquote>More than 122,000 votes were cast in the caucuses.
<ol>
<li><strong>Mitt Romney</strong>: 30,015 votes/25%</li>
<li><strong>Rick Santorum</strong>: 30,007/25%</li>
<li><strong>Ron Paul</strong>: 26,186 votes/21%</li>
<li><strong>Newt Gingrich</strong>: 16,251 votes/13%</li>
<li><strong>Rick Perry</strong>: 2,604 votes/10%</li>
<li><strong>Michele Bachmann</strong>: 6,073 votes/5%</li>
<li><strong>John Huntsman</strong>: 745 votes/<1%</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<strong>MICHELE BACHMANN</strong>
[caption id="attachment_125795" align="alignright" width="300" caption="REUTERS/Brian Frank"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-125795" title="Michele Bachmann" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/usa-campaign_bachmann.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
Michele Bachmann never got her miracle — and now she’s out of the Republican presidential race. The 55-year-old Minnesota congresswoman announced Wednesday morning she was suspending her campaign after a miserable sixth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses. “The people of Iowa spoke with a very clear voice, and so I have decided to stand aside,” Ms. Bachmann said at a morning news conference in Des Moines. “I have no regrets, none whatsoever. We never compromised our principles.” The Iowa result was a devastating one for the third-term lawmaker, who showed a flash of promise when she won the state’s presidential straw poll last summer. Ms. Bachmann, operating on a shoestring budget, spent the past three weeks on a whirlwind tour of all 99 Iowa counties. She courted the state’s evangelical conservatives with a stump speech that was heavy on religious references, even as polls showed her campaign flatlining on the Hawkeye State flatlands. As she departed the race, Ms. Bachmann warned that the health care bill “endangered the very survival” of America and had become a “playground” for left-wing social engineering. <em>Postmedia News</em>
<strong>RICK SANTORUM</strong>
[caption id="attachment_125279" align="alignright" width="300" caption="REUTERS/John Gress"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-125279" title="Rick Santorum" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/usa-campaign_-5.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
Rick Santorum scored a major victory by taking Iowa’s Republican nominating contest right down to the wire — now all he needs are money, staff, and infrastructure to keep his momentum going. Mr. Santorum’s success, after months of trailing badly in the polls, resulted from a dogged strategy of visiting each of the state’s 99 counties and engaging in the traditional retail politics that Iowans love. “Game on!” Mr. Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, said late on Tuesday at his victory party. To ensure that voters in other states pick him too, Mr. Santorum has a lot of ground to make up. His lack of organization outside of Iowa may make it hard to capitalize on his strong showing in the first nominating vote. However, rivals have already begun to highlight what they say was his record as a backer of big government spending in the Senate and his endorsement of Romney in the 2008 Republican race. Those arguments will take centre stage in New Hampshire, the next state to hold a nominating contest. Mr. Santorum is also planning to buy ads in South Carolina where he has a good chance to pick up the strong evangelical Christian vote because of his “family values” message.” <em>Reuters</em>
[np-related]
<strong>RON PAUL</strong>
[caption id="attachment_123777" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Jeff Haynes/Reuters"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-123777" title="Ron Paul (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)" src="http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/ronpaul.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
Few Republican strategists expect Ron Paul to make it to the White House, but the Iowa results showed that at least he will be a force to be reckoned with in the primaries, and in his party’s politics. If he can carry some of his momentum to other states, Mr. Paul will likely have more influence in the national Republican Party’s platform, a goal of many of his supporters who say their anti-Fed, anti-debt and anti-war movement and message is just as important as Mr. Paul’s candidacy, writes The New York Times. With New Hampshire looking like going to Mitt Romney, Mr. Paul must now look to the next contest in South Carolina where he is running third in polls. The New York Times said Mr. Paul has begun running ads in the state that highlight his anti-abortion appeal to social conservatives and his military record
<strong>NEWT GINGRICH</strong>
[caption id="attachment_125184" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Jeff Haynes/Reuters"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-125184" title="gingrich" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/gingrich.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
Newt Gingrich is battered but still alive. Hit by plummeting poll numbers in recent days, Mr. Gingrich is likely now to hold on until the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21 and hope for the backing of conservatives there.
His main rival, Mitt Romney, is expected to handily win the next vote, in New Hampshire on Tuesday, leaving South Carolina as the main battleground in the early balloting for the Republican nomination. Mr. Gingrich on Tuesday night again attacked a series of negative ads targetting him. He also described himself as “a Ronald Reagan conservative who helped change Washington in the 1980s.” He called Mr. Romney a “timid Massachusetts moderate ... (who) would be pretty good at managing the decay but has given no evidence in his years in Massachusetts of any ability to change the culture, or change the political structure, or change the government.” Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said he doubted Mr. Gingrich could last long beyond the South Carolina vote. “He can carry on a bit more maybe through South Carolina but he doesn’t have the juice,” Mr. Smith said. <em>Reuters</em>
<strong>RICK PERRY</strong>
[caption id="attachment_125018" align="alignright" width="300" caption="REUTERS/John Gress"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-125018" title="Rick Perry listens to a potential voter as he campaigns at the Coffee Corner in Washington, Iowa December 29, 2011" src="http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/usa-campaign_-4.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
Texas Governor Rick Perry, seen just months ago as a strong contender to become the 2012 Republican U.S. presidential nominee, said he would reassess his White House bid after a distant fifth place showing in Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses. “I have decided to return to Texas, assess the results of tonight’s caucus to determine whether there is a path forward for myself in this race,” Mr. Perry, who had led polls of Republican presidential candidates after he jumped into the race in August but committed a series of gaffes on the campaign trail, told supporters. A source close to the campaign said Mr. Perry was running out of money and did not want to go into debt. <em>Reuters</em>
<strong>JON HUNTSMAN</strong>
[caption id="attachment_72948" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Spencer Platt/Getty Images"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-72948" title="Spencer Platt/Getty Images" src="http://nationalpostnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/huntsman.jpg?w=300&quot; alt="" width="300" height="225" />[/caption]
The former Utah governor did not campaign in Iowa, dismissing it as unimportant. He is counting on a strong showing in New Hampshire on Jan. 10. "The issue is going to be trust in the 2012 election cycle,” he told a crowd in Peterborough, New Hampshire. “People want to know your core. They want to know you have a consistent, predictable core. I haven't been on three sides of all the issues. I ran a state that was No. 1 in job creation as opposed to No. 47. I've lived overseas four times. ... The kind of experience I bring is unlike anyone else in the race." In New Hampshire, he is currently polling in fourth place.
<em>National Post</em>
[caption id="attachment_125881" align="alignnone" width="620" caption="National Post Graphics"]<a href="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/primary.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-125881" title="National Post Graphics" src="http://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/primary.jpg?w=620&quot; alt="" width="620" height="767" /></a>[/caption]

The outlook for the country is grim. President Barack Obama’s decision Thursday to cancel a joint military exercise with the Egyptian army was generally panned as too little too late. The administration’s unwillingness to take sides in the dispute left it on the outs with both the military and the Islamists. A recent visit by two Republican senators in search of compromise failed, and earned a public rebuke from Sisi, who accused the U.S. for turning its back on Egypt, while griping that Obama hadn’t called him personally to discuss Egypt’s troubles.

Western leaders said the warned Egypt’s military against a violent crackdown, right up to the last moment.

“In the past week, at every occasion … we and others have urged the government to respect the rights of free assembly and of free expression, and we have also urged all parties to resolve this impasse peacefully and underscored that demonstrators should avoid violence and incitement,” said Secretary of State John Kerry.

The fact that Sisi and his colleagues ignored the pressure demonstrates how little regard they now have for western opinion and official ties. Senior figures within the Islamic Brotherhood are warning of civil war, and comparing the military regime to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Sadly, no one has suggested they may be exaggerating.

CHILMARK, Mass. — President Barack Obama on Thursday cancelled joint U.S.-Egypt military exercises, saying America’s traditional co-operation with Egypt “cannot continue as usual” while violence and instability deepen in the strategically important nation.

It’s unclear whether scrapping the Bright Star exercise will have any impact in stopping the clashes between Egypt’s military-backed interim government and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi. And Obama gave no indication that the U.S. planned to cut off its $1.3-billion in annual military aid to Egypt.

Speaking from his vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama said the U.S. wants democracy in Egypt to succeed. But he said achieving that outcome is not the responsibility of the United States.

“America cannot determine the future of Egypt,” Obama said. “That’s a task for the Egyptian people. We don’t take sides with any particular party or political figure.”

More than 500 people have died in Egypt since Wednesday in clashes between the interim government and Morsi’s supporters. The government has declared a nationwide state of emergency and a nighttime curfew.

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP/Getty ImagesBystanders, firefighters and workers stand by the Giza Governorate headquarters after it was burned.

The Bright Star exercises are a multi-national effort designed to strengthen military-to-military relationships and improve readiness between U.S., Egyptian and other coalition forces. The air, ground and naval exercises were scheduled to start in mid-September and last about three weeks.

For decades, Bright Star has been a centrpiece of the military relationship between the U.S. and Egypt. However, the maneuvers haven’t been held since 2009 as Egypt grappled with the fallout from the revolution that ousted its longtime autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian authorities on Thursday significantly raised the death toll from clashes the previous day between police and supporters of the ousted Islamist president, saying more than 500 people died and laying bare the extent of the violence that swept much of the country.

Despite the government’s declaration of a nighttime curfew and a state of emergency, violence continued into the next day. Angry men presumed to be supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi stormed and torched two buildings housing the provincial government of Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo.

The death toll, which stood at 525, according to the latest Health Ministry figures, makes Wednesday by far the deadliest day since the 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime ruler and autocrat Hosni Mubarak — a grim milestone that does not bode well for the future of a nation roiled in turmoil and divisions for the past 2 1/2 years.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khateeb put the number of the injured on Wednesday at 3,717.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group from which ousted President Mohammed Morsi hails, put the death toll at a staggering 2,600 and the injured at around 10,000 — figures that are extremely high in light of footage by regional and local TV networks, as well as The Associated Press.

In Thursday’s violence at the Giza provincial governor’s office, Associated Press reporters saw the buildings – a two-story colonial style villa and a four-story administrative building ablaze. The Giza government offices are located on the road that leads to the Pyramids.

State TV blamed supporters of Morsi for the fire.

Meanwhile, near the site of one of the smashed encampments of Morsi’s supporters in Cairo’s eastern Nasr City district, an Associated Press reporter on Thursday saw dozens of blood-soaked bodies stored inside a mosque. The bodies were wrapped in sheets and still unclaimed by families.

Relatives at the scene were uncovering the faces in an attempt to identify their loved ones. Many complained that authorities were preventing them from obtaining permits to bury their dead.

El-Khateeb said 202 of the 525 were killed in the Nasr City protest camp, but it was not immediately clear whether the bodies at the mosque were included in that figure. Another Health Ministry spokesman, Mohammed Fathallah, said he had no knowledge of the bodies at the el-Iman mosque.

Victims’ names were scribbled on white sheets covering their bodies, some of which were charred. Posters of Morsi were scattered on the floor.

“They accuse us of setting fire to ourselves. Then, they accuse us of torturing people and dumping their bodies. Now, they kill us and then blame us,” screamed a woman in a head-to-toe black niqab.

Omar Houzien, a volunteer helping families search for their loved ones, said the bodies were brought in from the Medical Center at the sit-in camp site in the final hours of Wednesday’s police sweep because of fears that they would be burned.

A list plastered on the wall listed 265 names of those said to have been killed in Wednesday’s violence at the sit-in. Funerals for identified victims were expected to take place later on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a mass police funeral — with caskets draped in the white, red and black Egyptian flag — was held in Cairo for some of the 43 security troops whom authorities said were killed in Wednesday’s clashes.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, led the mourners. A police band played funerary music as a somber funeral procession moved with the coffins placed atop red fire engines.

Wednesday’s violence started with riot police raiding and clearing out the two camps, sparking clashes there and elsewhere in the Egyptian capital and other cities.

Cairo, a city of some 18 million people, was uncharacteristically quiet Thursday, with only a fraction of its usually hectic traffic and many stores and government offices shuttered. Many people hunkered down at home for fear of more violence. Banks and the stock market were closed.

The Brotherhood has called for fresh protests nationwide on Thursday, raising the specter of renewed violence. It warned that the protests would grow in intensity, but gave no details. By early afternoon, dozens of Morsi supporters were blocking a main road near the site of the Nasr City camp, disrupting traffic.

The latest events in Egypt drew widespread condemnation from the Muslim world and the West, including the United States, Egypt’s main foreign backer for over 30 years.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei resigned later Wednesday as Egypt’s interim vice president in protest – a blow to the new leadership’s credibility with the pro-reform movement.

Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said in a televised address to the nation that it was a “difficult day” and that he regretted the bloodshed but offered no apologies for moving against Morsi’s supporters, saying they were given ample warnings to leave and he had tried foreign mediation efforts.

The leaders of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood called it a “massacre.” Several prominent Brotherhood figures were detained as police swept through the two sit-in sites, scores of other Islamists were taken into custody, and the future of the once-banned movement was uncertain.

Backed by helicopters, police fired tear gas and used armored bulldozers to plow into the barricades at the two protest camps on opposite ends of Cairo. Morsi’s supporters had been camped out since before he was ousted by a July 3 coup that followed days of mass protests by millions of Egyptians demanding that he step down.

The smaller camp – near Cairo University in Giza – was cleared of protesters relatively quickly, but it took about 12 hours for police to take control of the main sit-in site near the Rabaah al-Adawiya Mosque in Nasr City that has served as the epicenter of the pro-Morsi campaign and had drawn chanting throngs of men, women and children only days earlier.

AP Photo / Khalil HamraEgyptians mourn over the bodies of their relatives who died yesterday in clashes with security forces, in the El-Iman mosque at Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2013

After the police moved on the camps, street battles broke out in Cairo and other cities across Egypt. Government buildings and police stations were attacked, roads were blocked, and Christian churches were torched, Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said.

At one point, protesters trapped a police Humvee on an overpass near the Nasr City camp and pushed it off, according to images posted on social networking sites that showed an injured policeman on the ground below, near a pool of blood and the overturned vehicle.

Three journalists were among the dead: Mick Deane, 61, a cameraman for British broadcaster Sky News; Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz, 26, a reporter for the Gulf News, a state-backed newspaper in the United Arab Emirates; and Ahmed Abdel Gawad, who wrote for Egypt’s state-run newspaper Al Akhbar. Deane and Elaziz were shot to death, their employers said, while the Egyptian Press Syndicate, a journalists’ union, said it had no information on how Gawad was killed.

The turmoil was the latest chapter in a bitter standoff between Morsi’s supporters and the interim leadership that took over the Arab world’s most populous country. The military ousted Morsi after millions of Egyptians massed in the streets at the end of June to call for him to step down, accusing him of giving the Brotherhood undue influence and failing to implement vital reforms or bolster the ailing economy.

AP Photo/Mohammed Abu ZeidSupporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi clash with security forces near the largest sit-in by supporters of Morsi in the eastern Nasr City district of Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2013. Egyptian police in riot gear swept in with armored vehicles and bulldozers Wednesday to clear the sit-in camps set up by supporters of the country's ousted Islamist president in Cairo, showering protesters with tear gas as the sound of gunfire rang out.

Morsi has been held at an undisclosed location since July 3. Other Brotherhood leaders have been charged with inciting violence or conspiring in the killing of protesters.

A security official said 200 protesters were arrested at both camps. Several men could be seen walking with their hands up as they were led away by black-clad police.

The Brotherhood has spent most of the 85 years since its creation as an outlawed group or enduring crackdowns by successive governments. The latest developments could provide authorities with the grounds to once again declare it an illegal group and consign it to the political wilderness.

In his televised address, el-Beblawi said the government could not indefinitely tolerate a challenge to authority that the 6-week-old protests represented.

“We want to see a civilian state in Egypt, not a military state and not a religious state,” he said.

But the resignation of ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear agency and a figure widely respected by Western governments, was the first crack to emerge in the government as a result of the violence.

ElBaradei had made it clear in recent weeks that he was against the use of force to end the protests. At least 250 people have died in previous clashes since the coup that ousted Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president.

On Wednesday, his letter of resignation to interim President Adly Mansour carried an ominous message to a nation already torn by more than two years of turmoil.

“It has become difficult for me to continue to take responsibility for decisions I disapprove of, and I fear their consequences,” he said in the letter that was emailed to The Associated Press. “I cannot take responsibility before God, my conscience and country for a single drop of blood, especially because I know it was possible to spare it.

The National Salvation front, the main opposition grouping that he headed during Morsi’s year in office, said it regretted his departure and complained that it was not consulted beforehand. Tamarod, the youth group behind the mass anti-Morsi protests that preceded the coup, said ElBaradei was dodging his responsibility at a time when his services were needed.

Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, the powerful head of Al-Azhar mosque, Sunni Islam’s main seat of learning, also sought to distance himself from the violence. He said in a statement he had no prior knowledge of the action.

After six trips to the Middle East and tireless shuttle diplomacy, Secretary of State John Kerry somehow convinced the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel last month to agree upon “a basis” to hold peace talks. Kerry has a long road ahead if he is to bridge the gap between the two sides. He may not know it yet, but he has a secret weapon. He can help cripple Hamas.

The PLO and the Israelis cannot agree on much, but their hatred for Hamas is mutual. And the United States can leverage this by attacking the violent Islamist faction while it is at the most vulnerable point it has been in years.

The downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt in July has been widely described as a blow to Hamas and its de facto government in the Gaza Strip. But the real damage has been to the Islamist group’s pocketbook.The Egyptian Army’s ongoing operations against the subterranean tunnels connecting Egypt to the Gaza Strip, which have long served as key arteries for bulk cash smuggling, are wreaking havoc on Hamas’s finances. One senior Israeli security official told me that, in the current environment, an additional reduction of 20-30% in Hamas’ revenues could “destroy” the movement.

Hamas’s budget for running the Gaza Strip, which it violently took over in 2007, is estimated to be $890-million this year (Hamas doesn’t submit to an outside audit, so consider this a ballpark figure). Until last year, the faction relied heavily on Iran and Syria for a great deal of its cash, but the civil war in Syria prompted Hamas to loosen its ties to the “Axis of Resistance.” Funding from Tehran has dropped off precipitously since then, forcing the faction to turn to the Muslim Brotherhood bloc to make ends meet.

Qatar pledged $400-million to the group last year, when the emir visited Gaza. Turkey is believed to provide additional support — as much as $300-million, according to some estimates. However, it is unclear how much of these funds are earmarked for the Hamas government bureaucracy, and how much is slated for the building of mosques, hospitals and other Gaza Strip infrastructure that has been badly damaged during skirmishes with Israel over the years. It is also unclear how much of this is funneled to Hamas’ military arm, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

In addition to these funds, a whopping $1.4-billion per year reportedly flows from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to Gaza. Hamas and the Fatah movement fought a bloody civil war in 2007, but that has not stopped the PA from earmarking these funds for the people of Gaza, whom they still purport to rule. The PA has been careful not to provide any funds directly to Hamas, for fear of invoking the ire of Congress. These funds primarily pay the salaries of “civil servants” who lost their jobs after Hamas overran the Gaza Strip. In essence, the PA pays these former bureaucrats not to work for Hamas. The PA also directly subsidizes Gaza’s electricity production and reportedly underwrites other municipal services. Nevertheless, it is a fair assumption that Hamas, which rules Gaza with an iron fist, pockets a portion of the PA funds anyway.

The Egyptian Army’s relentless crackdown on the smuggling tunnels has made it nearly impossible for the terror group to bring in cash

Hamas has also augmented its income over the past decade by taxing goods that come through the tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt. The tunnels were first created as a means to smuggle weapons to the coastal enclave, but after Hamas conquered Gaza, prompting Israel to impose a blockade, the tunnels became a key artery for a wide range of goods necessary to keep the economy running. Hamas, as Gaza’s de facto rulers, reportedly took in at least $365-million a year from the tunnel trade.

But none of this matters much when Egypt’s junta is engaged in a relentless effort to shut down the tunnels. Specifically, the crackdown has made bulk cash smuggling — the key to Hamas’s financial independence — exceedingly difficult.

The reversal of fortune for Hamas is remarkable. During Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s year in office, Egypt was a key Hamas base of operations. Senior Hamas figure Mousa Abu Marzouk was based in Cairo, and Hamas even held a round of internal elections in the Egyptian capital. In addition, it is widely believed that elements of the Brotherhood’s financial network were bankrolling Hamas, even as Egypt’s economy cratered.

These activities did not please the Egyptian military — and for good reason. Last year, Gaza-based fighters attacked an Egyptian military outpost near the border with the Gaza Strip, killing 16 soldiers. Mounting concern that Hamas members might be sneaking in to Egypt with dangerous weapons led to a crackdown on the tunnels.

Elsa/Getty ImagesKyle Lowry, right, was acquired by the Toronto Raptors from the Houston Rockets to provide an defensive upgrade at the guard position.

Since Morsi’s ouster, the military has been unleashed: It has arrested at least 29 Brotherhood financiers, including at least one significant contributor to Hamas’s coffers, according to a senior Israeli security official. It has also reportedly deployed 30,000 troops to the Sinai and purportedly destroyed roughly 800 of the 1,000 tunnels connecting Egypt to Gaza. Ala al-Rafati, the Hamas economy minister, recently told Reuters that these operations cost Hamas $230-million — about a tenth of Gaza’s GDP.

All of this presents U.S. Secretary of State Kerry with a rare opportunity to try to hasten the group’s financial demise. And it is in his interest to do so. The group, after all, carried out suicide bombings against Israeli civilian targets in the 1990s to torpedo the peace process. It’s a fair bet that Hamas will launch a new campaign of violence now that talks are ramping back up.

What can Washington do, exactly?

For one, Congress and the administration could stop wringing its hands over whether the toppling of Morsi was a coup and instead openly encourage continued operations against the tunnels (while also holding the army to account as it navigates complicated transition). Congress, which dishes out some $500-million per year to the Palestinians, could also quietly work with the Palestinian Authority to scale back the funds that flow to Gaza.

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From there, the United States could attempt to use whatever leverage it has to convince both Turkey and Qatar to cut back on their funding of Hamas. Admittedly, Washington doesn’t have much pull in Ankara and Doha these days — they have more sway with the U.S. — but Congress could pull strings to speed up delivery of or withhold the advanced weapons systems that both countries are eagerly awaiting, depending upon how the conversation goes. Turkey, for example, is expecting Sidewinder missiles and Chinook helicopters, and it would like to purchase Predator and Reaper drones. Qatar, for its part, is expecting delivery of Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) Systems, and 500 Javelin-Guided Missiles.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strident proponent of Hamas on the world stage, is unlikely to be swayed. Erdogan insists that Hamas must be part of the political equation when negotiating peace with Israel. Qatar, however, presents possibilities. The former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani, recently abdicated the throne for his son, Tamim. The new emir is still learning his way on the world stage, and it is possible, some analysts suggest, that he could be persuaded to adopt new policies that promote moderation in the Middle East.

While the math is fuzzy, one thing is clear — the Egyptian army’s tunnel operations are slowly strangling Hamas. If one or more of the Islamist movement’s other funders cut back their aid even a little, its financial crisis will only deepen. The more acute the crisis, the more Gazans will grow frustrated with their Islamist rulers. A Muslim Brotherhood government just fell unexpectedly in Cairo — if Hamas doesn’t watch its back, it could happen again in Gaza.

For John Kerry and his tenuous peace initiative, this is a window of opportunity that should not be ignored.

Foreign Policy

Jonathan Schanzer is head of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

CAIRO — Prosecutors opened an investigation of ousted President Mohammed Morsi on charges including murder and conspiracy with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, fueling tensions amid a showdown in the streets between tens of thousands of backers of the military and supporters calling for the Islamist leader’s reinstatement.

Clashes between Morsi supporters and opponents erupted outside a major mosque in the coastal city of Alexandria, with the two sides throwing stones and firing birdshot at each other. Police and army forces lobbed tear gas and deployed soldiers but were unable to break up the fighting, which killed two people and injured 24. Minor scuffles erupted in a Cairo neighborhood and in the Nile Delta city of Damietta with at least 18 injured, according to health officials.

The announcement of the case against Morsi, which is likely to pave the way to a formal indictment, was the first word on his legal status since the military deposed him on July 3. For more than three weeks, the Islamist leader has been held by the military in a secret location, incommunicado.

Supporters of Morsi denied the charges against him, calling them politically motivated but vowed to keep their protests peaceful.

On Friday, a spokesman for Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood said the move to prosecute Morsi showed “the complete bankruptcy of the leaders of the bloody coup.”

Egyptians “reject the return of the dictatorial police state and all the repression, tyranny and theft it entails,” Ahmed Aref said in a statement.

The accusations are connected to a prison break during the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak in which gunmen attacked a prison northwest of Cairo, freeing prisoners including Morsi and around 30 other figures from his Muslim Brotherhood. The prosecutors allege Morsi and the Brotherhood worked with Hamas to carry out the break, in which 14 guards were killed.

The U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki expressed deep concern about reports of Morsi’s detention.

“I can’t speak to the specific charges. But we do believe that it is important that there be a process to work toward his release,” she said. “Clearly, this process should respect the personal security of him and take into account the volatile political situation in Egypt and that’s where our focus is. We have conveyed publicly and privately that his personal security and treatment is of utmost importance.”

Massive crowds, meanwhile, poured into main squares in Cairo and other cities in support of the military after the army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called for rallies. El-Sissi said days earlier he hoped for a giant public turnout to give him a mandate to stop “violence and terrorism,” raising speculation he may be planning a crackdown on pro-Morsi protests.

At the same time, crowds of Islamist backers of Morsi massed at their own rallies, part of what the Brotherhood and its allies had previously said would be their biggest protests to date to demand the reinstatement of the president. El-Sissi’s call days earlier may have been in part aimed to overwhelm the Islamist numbers in Friday’s rallies, as each side tries to show the depth of its public support.

The rival shows of strength only deepen the country’s divisions since Morsi’s fall. Clashes and fistfights broke out between the rival camps in Alexandria, with two killed and 24 injured, according to health official Mohammed Abu Suleiman. Skirmishes also broke out in the Mediterranean coastal city of Damietta and a Cairo neighborhood that left a combined 18 injured, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khateeb said.

El-Sissi deposed Morsi after four days of giant protests by millions of Egyptians demanding the removal of the country’s first freely elected president following months of political standoff between him and the largely secular opposition. Since then, Islamists have been holding sit-ins and rallies daily.

Ed Giles/Getty ImagesA billboard urging Egyptians to show support to the Egyptian military (R) is seen during a pro-military demonstration at Tahrir Square on July 26, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt.

State media and pro-military private TV stations have been fiercely promoting the el-Sissi rallies, pumping up a nationalist fervor.

El-Sissi’s portrait pervaded the crowds of tens of thousands in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square: the smiling general in sunglasses on posters proclaiming “the love of the people,” a combination photo of the general and a lion on lanyards hanging from people’s necks, a picture of his face photoshopped into a 1-pound note of currency.

“The people, the source of all power, mandate the army and police to purge terrorism,” read a giant banner stretched across one entrance to Tahrir. Three tanks guarded another street leading into the square, and helicopters swooped overhead.

Security was heavy after el-Sissi vowed to protect the rallies from attacks by rivals. Tanks guarded one entrance to Tahrir and police were stationed at other parts. “The people give their mandate,” read signs touted by many in the crowd.

“The army is here to protect the people, they don’t lie,” said Ezzat Fahmi, a 38-year-old in the crowd. He said el-Sissi had to call Friday’s rallies “so the entire world can see that the Egyptian people don’t want the Brotherhood anymore.”

Across town in eastern Cairo, thousands of pro-Morsi supporters packed a sit-in camp outside Rabaa al-Adawiyah mosque, chanting against el-Sissi and vowing to continue their push for Morsi’s return.

The Muslim Brotherhood and allies, dubbing themselves as the anti-coup coalition, called the timing of the charges against Morsi “a malicious attempt to incite public opinion” and drag his supporters into violent protests. The statement vowed not to let that happen.

“He is fueling more anger from one sector against another sector,” he said.

AFP PHOTO/Arif ALIArif Ali/AFP/Getty ImagesActivists of Jamaat-e-Islami party hold placards to support ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi during a rally in Lahore on July 21, 2013. Supporters of Morsi, who was ousted after a single year of turbulent rule, have pressed demonstrations against the new cabinet, holding marches and protests across the country since his fall.

Clashes have repeatedly erupted the past three weeks pitting Morsi supporters against his opponents or security forces. Each side blames the other for sparking violence, and people in both camps have been seen carrying weapons. On Friday, security forces in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla said they seized equipment and tools designed to create homemade guns, as well as guns and ammunition in an apartment. A security official said the tools and guns were seized following a tip that the products were being transported to pro-Morsi supporters. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

It remains unclear what steps the military is planning after Friday’s show of public strength. The most explosive step would be if it were to try to break up sit-ins by Islamists who have been camped out at locations in Cairo and other cities for weeks.

The military also could move to arrest more than a dozen Brotherhood figures who have arrest warrants against them. Or it could take firmer action to stop any sign of violence by Islamist protesters – though the Morsi camp says it is the one targeted by attacks. The word “wanted” in English was plastered across photos of a number of Brotherhood leaders and allies who are facing arrest warrants on the front page of the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper. Many of them are believed to be taking refuge in the Rabaa al-Adawiyah sit-in.

At the same time, Islamic militants have stepped up attacks on the army and police in the Sinai Peninsula. More than 180 people have been killed in Egypt since Morsi’s fall.

AP Photo / Khalil HamraA supporter of ousted President Mohammed Morsi holds a poster of him during clashes in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Monday, July 15, 2013

The prosecutors’ announcement on Morsi could signal a greater move to go after the Brotherhood in courts. Besides Morsi, five other senior figures from the group have been detained.

Senior Brotherhood official Essam el-Erian rejected the detention order, saying Morsi continues to enjoy immunity as the nation’s “legitimate” president, and he can stand trial only as part of a constitutional process that allows that.

The detention order, he wrote on his official Facebook page, “lays bare the fascist nature of military rule … our response will be with millions in peaceful rallies in the squares.”

The MENA news agency said Morsi has now been formally detained for 15 days pending the completion of the investigation into the accusations. It did not say, however, whether he would now be moved now to a regular detention facility where he could receive family visits. The head of prison authorities, Maj. Gen. Mostafa Baz said he has not yet received orders for the transfer of Morsi to any of his facilities. His detention can be extended as the inquiry continues. The news agency indicated that Morsi has already been interrogated.

MENA said Morsi was being investigated over allegations of collaborating with Hamas “to carry out anti-state acts, attacking police stations and army officers and storming prisons, setting fire to one prison and enabling inmates to flee, including himself, as well as premeditated killing of officers, soldiers and prisoners.”

AFP PHOTO / EGYPTIAN TVAn image grab taken from Egyptian state TV shows Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi giving a live broadcast calling for public rallies this week to give him a mandate to fight "terrorism and violence," as Mohamed Morsi's supporters continue to protest against his ouster.

Over recent months, a court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia has heard testimonies from prison officials and intelligence officers indicating that Morsi and his Brotherhood colleagues were freed when gunmen led by Hamas operatives stormed the Wadi el-Natroun prison. At least 14 members of the security forces were killed and the jail’s documents and archives destroyed.

Muslim Brotherhood officials have said they got out when local residents broke into the prison to free their relatives and that they had no knowledge ahead of time of the prison break.

CAIRO — Egypt’s military chief has called for mass rallies Friday to give him a mandate to stamp out violence that has rocked the country since the army deposed Mohamed Morsi three weeks ago.

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on all “honourable” Egyptians to rally as the army sought to combat “terrorism.” In a speech televised from the Mediterranean city of Alexandria he said the demonstrators should “order me to confront the potential violence and terrorism.”

The general said some people wanted to drag the nation into a “dangerous tunnel” and to “either rule the country or destroy it.”

“Some are trying to incite people to target the army” and portray their struggle as “a jihad for the glory of God,” he said.

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The Brotherhood has argued that Mr. Morsi’s removal amounted to a coup against Egypt’s first freely elected civilian president. The organization has also planned mass rallies on Friday, and Essam El-Erian, the vice-chairman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said the general’s call was a “threat to plunge the country into seas of blood” to which Egyptians would not respond.

The party’s spokesman, Hamza Zawba, said it was an “invitation to kill Morsi supporters.”

Since Mr. Morsi’s overthrow some 100 Egyptians have been killed in fighting between the two groups. In the most recent clashes, at least nine Morsi supporters were killed when police opened fire on about 1,000 people at a sit-in near Cairo University.

Gen. al-Sisi said that Mr. Morsi was being held in a secure location for his own safety. In a press conference this week, Mr. Morsi’s son Osama said the family has not heard from Mr. Morsi since he was overthrown.

Egypt has been rocked by huge protests in the past month. On June 30 some estimates claimed 17 million people took to the streets to demand Mr. Morsi resign. Many said he had failed to lead Egypt to real democracy and had pushed through a draft constitution that favoured Islamists.

The ongoing violence has divided Egyptians over the future of their country. Egypt was seen as a model of peaceful transition when Hosni Mubarak stepped down. A military coalition took over and paved the way for democratic elections.

But in the last few weeks, fears have grown that violence could spread among Egypt’s 85 million people, many of whom live in poverty. A growing economic crisis is exacerbating tensions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has postponed finalizing a $4-billion loan to Egypt because of the tensions although Qatar has given money to keep the country afloat,.

While some welcome the military’s intervention into Egypt’s politics, others, even non-Morsi supporters, worried that the military presence could become permanent.

“I am with Morsi now more than before even though I didn’t vote for him,” said Mohamed Taher, a taxi driver. “I feel that legitimacy and democracy were stolen by the military.”

Morsi supporters also say that soldiers are defecting from the army and joining their ranks.

“The people who are killed in the protests have relatives in the army and police, and when one man dies, the whole family [tribe] comes out and tries to seek revenge,” said Mohamed al-Amir, a pro-Morsi activist. “Now the soldiers do not want to attack protestors. I have information that when soldiers go visit their families, they are not coming back to the service.”

Egypt’s second-wave revolution has never had quite as eloquent an explanation as it gets from the lips of a 12-year-old boy on the streets of Cairo.

Ali Ahmed was interviewed by the Egyptian newspaper Al Wady at a protest in October 2012. This was after former President Mohammed Morsi had consolidated much of his power as president, but before the controversial (and, in retrospect, regime-ending) constitution had passed.

“I’m here today to help prevent Egypt from becoming a commodity owned by one person,” Ahmed says in a YouTube translation. “And to protest the confiscation of the constitution by one single party.”

The video was uploaded to YouTube in late March — with the somewhat joking title “Egypt : The Next President” — gaining widespread viewership this past week after being shared on Reddit and Facebook.

“We didn’t get rid of a military regime to replace it with a fascist theocracy!” Ahmed exclaims at one point. The interviewer then responds by saying “Fascist Theocracy? I don’t even know what that means …”

Ahmed explains: “Fascist Theocracy is when you manipulate religion and enforce extremist regulation in the name of religion, even though religion doesn’t command that.”

Ahmed then goes on to explain the specifics of his complaints, saying the current constitution masks how anti-woman it is by carving out broad exceptions for shariah law. (Ahmed says he’s read the whole draft constitution on the Internet.)

After the video went viral, many commenters pointed out that Ahmed was likely coached in his views and his answers, something that’s difficult to determine from the short YouTube video, which is filled with jump cuts and edits. The reporter asks Ahmed where he gets his views from and the boy says that he is simply well read.

“I listen to people a lot, and I use my own brain,” Ahmed explains. “Plus I read newspapers, watch TV and search in the Internet.”

Then, illuminating the anti-Morsi view in the country, Ahmed foreshadows the former president’s ouster.

“Where is the constitution that represents us?” he says. “All of [the political process] is void, because the parliament in the first place is void.”

Since the removal of Morsi last month, the divide between Islamists and secularists is growing deeper and increasingly violent. Hours before the new cabinet was sworn in, seven people died and hundreds were injured at pro-Morsi rallies. Last week, at least 50 Morsi supporters were killed fighting with the army. Arrests of Brotherhood leaders and other Islamists, and the freezing of funds, have only inflamed Morsi’s supporters further.

Outside the cabinet on Wednesday, about 300 of Morsi’s backers scuffled with security forces, Hany Girgis, head of Cairo’s Qasr El-Nil police station, said by phone. No casualties were immediately reported.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Morsi supporters arrested by Egyptian authorities reported that they were beaten, subjected to electric shocks and hit with rifle butts.

“At this time of extreme polarization and division, it is more important than ever that the office of the Public Prosecutor demonstrates that it’s truly independent and not politicized,” Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, deputy director, Middle East and North Africa program, said on Amnesty’s website .

CAIRO — Egypt’s interim leader on Tuesday swore in the first Cabinet since the military ousted the Islamist president, giving members of the country’s liberal movements key positions and naming three Christians and three women, their highest numbers in an Egyptian government.

The new government is led by Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, an economist. Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who ousted Mohammed Morsi on July 3, retains his post as defense minister and also took the position of first deputy prime minister, an additional title given to defense ministers in the past.

The Cabinet of more than 30 ministers does not include any members of Islamist parties — a sign of the deep polarization over the removal of Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president. The interim president’s spokesman had earlier said posts would be offered to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, but the group promptly refused.

AFP / Getty Images / Egyptian Presidency In this handout picture released by the Egyptian presidency Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour (R) shakes hands with Egypt's caretaker prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi at the swearing in ceremony of Egypt's interim cabinet on July 16, 2013 in Cairo. Egypt's first government since the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi almost two weeks ago was officially sworn in state television reported.

The Brotherhood has said it will not participate in the military-backed political process and vows to continue protests until Morsi is reinstated. The swearing in of the Cabinet took place hours after overnight clashes between police and Islamist supporters of Morsi left seven protesters dead in the worst outbreak of violence in a week.

The new government, sworn in by interim President Adly Mansour, reflects the largely liberal, secular bent of the factions who backed el-Sissi’s removal of Morsi.

Women have a somewhat higher profile, with three ministries — including the powerful information and health ministries. Most past governments for decades have had at most two women in them.

Marwan Naamani / AFP / Getty Images Supporters of Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi chant Islamic slogans during a rally outside Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque on July 13, 2013. Supporters of Morsi vowed to keep fighting for his reinstatement with further protests as Egypt's new prime minister edged closer to forming a cabinet.

The Cabinet also includes three Christians, including one of the three women, Environment Minister Laila Rashed Iskander.

The Morsi-appointed interior minister, Mohammed Ibrahim, remains in his post, in charge of the police. Nabil Fahmy, who was Egypt’s ambassador to the U.S. from 1999-2008, becomes foreign minister.

In a nod to the revolutionary youth groups that engineered the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the massive protests that preceded Morsi’s ouster, Mansour renamed the justice portfolio the transitional justice and national reconciliation ministry and gave it to Mohammed el-Mahdi, a career judge.

The groups have been campaigning for individuals responsible for the killing of hundreds of protesters since Mubarak’s fall to be brought to justice. Reconciliation is a longstanding demand by most political forces to end the nation’s polarization, which often spills over into street violence.

At least three senior figures from the National Salvation Front, the main opposition grouping during Morsi’s year in office, were included in the government. In addition, the new deputy prime minister in charge of international cooperation, Ziad Bahaa-Eldin, is a member of the Social Democratic Party, which is part of the Salvation Front.

Mohamed ElBaradei, one of the Front’s top leaders, has already been installed as Mansour’s vice president.

In a first, Mansour also swore in an icon of Egyptian soccer as sports minister. Midfielder Taher Abu Zeid starred in Cairo’s el-Ahly club and the national side in the 1980s. He was a member of a star-studded national squad that won the 1986 African Nations’ Cup in Cairo.

Soon after the swearing in, carried live on state TV, the one Islamist party that supported the military’s ouster of Morsi, criticized the new Cabinet for its lack of inclusion.

“This is a repeat of the same mistake the last government was blamed for, and leads to a totally biased government,” the Al-Nour Party said in a statement. It said it doesn’t accept “that one movement replaces another to control the government, which should be unbiased and non-partisan.”

The Cabinet is to run the country as it goes through a transition plan announced last week by Mansour, which includes the formation of panels to amend the Islamist-drafted constitution that was passed under Morsi and then the holding of elections for a new parliament and president early next year.

The new leadership is driving ahead with the process despite the staunch rejection by Morsi’s Islamist supporters, who are holding sit-ins in cities around the country. Morsi’s supporters accuse the military of carrying out a coup that has destroyed Egypt’s democracy.

Riots broke out overnight with police firing volleys of tear gas at protesters, who burned tires, threw rocks and blocked traffic flow on a main roadway running through the heart of the capital. The Brotherhood said police used birdshot and live ammunition.

At least seven people were killed and 261 injured in the clashes in four different locations in Cairo, according to Khaled el-Khateeb, the head of the Health Ministry’s emergency and intensive care department. Four of the seven were killed in clashes between residents and Morsi supporters staging a sit-in near the main campus of Cairo university, according to security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Egypt’s state news agency said 17 policemen were injured and 401 people have been arrested in relation to the clashes.

The violence broke also soon after the most senior U.S. official to visit Egypt since Morsi was toppled concluded a round of talks with the country’s interim leaders in which he called for the Brotherhood to be included in the political process.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns held talks with Mansour and el-Beblawi on Monday, as well as el-Sissi. He also spoke by telephone with a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters. Ventrell would not identify the Brotherhood representative or give details on the call.